


The Weekend Of Surprises

by watchingthestars13



Series: The Life And Times Of Emma Barton [5]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky being a sweetheart, Clint is overprotective of his lil twins, Cuddles, Emma is exposed to the world and it's cruelness, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Kittens, M/M, Photoshoots, Shadow Monsters, They finally get a pet!, battles, maybe when it's done, more new characters I don't wanna spoil for!, that's kind of to be expected tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2017-02-18
Packaged: 2018-09-07 18:46:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8811976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watchingthestars13/pseuds/watchingthestars13
Summary: Bruce's lovelife might actually turn into something, while Emma gets her own cat, and Darcy is just trying to do her damn job. At least Pietro is eating a whole bunch of bananas nowadays, however aggressively.





	1. Kitchen Sex And Real, Live Kittens

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back!  
> Schoolwork has been heaping up on me and I haven't been able to write very well at all for a while, and then suddenly it was mid-December! What the actual fuck. Anyway, here's some cute goodness, because although I'm a fan of angst, I'm also here for all the fluff.  
> Enjoy! <3

 

"It's still weird, seeing you with short hair," Darcy said thoughtfully over the rim of her mug, kicking her feet against the kitchen island. Emma had kept true to her promise about chopping his hair off, and Darcy had gotten to watch the cocky Bucky Steve had pictures of emerge from his barrier of hair. He was a different person, but his lips had managed to twist into a familiar smile, according to Steve. 

It really was remarkable, the change from how he'd looked with longer hair. Before, it had reached below his shoulders, rivaling Darcy's own. Now, it was cropped close to his head, but not too close. Not an army cut, like Steve's, or Tony's styled mess, or Bruce's waves. A little curled in the front, cute curls she loved messing up during sex and cuddling, and definitely one of Emma's better ideas. 

"I'm good at cutting hair," Emma had assured her before she'd cut off maybe four inches of hair and tossed the tuft into Bucky's lap casually. He looked like she'd tossed a dead kitten instead of a lock of hair, but sat patiently still until Emma had smoothed his hair into the beautiful style it was now. 

Bucky shrugged, eyes raking up and down her frame. She was curled up in only one of his few flannels and a pair of booty shorts, and was well aware of how good she looked. He was wearing sweats and a tight t-shirt that made her want to push him down on the tiled floor of the kitchen and ravish him. 

"It's weird having short hair," he said, scratching the back of his neck absently, a gesture Darcy knew wouldn't even cross his mind to do if it hadn't been for Emma. A pang of love for the crazy little girl smacked her, and she took another sip of her coffee. "I have a bunch of scrunchies that are useless now."

"Don't worry. Soon enough your manly lion's mane will grow back and you can go back to terrifying people with it," she assured him, and got an amused quirk of the lips for her efforts. "So, what's your schedule for today?"

"Nothing much," Bucky replied, leaning the metal arm against the counter and taking a step closer. The metal made a slight noise as it slipped over the stone surface, and she smiled up at him. "Sam's coming over for some sparring later. That's about it. You?"

"Well, I have a couple of journalists I've been recieving calls from, trying to get a photo shoot with Emma. I'm gonna have to ask the agents what they think about that first though. I can't imagine they'll be thrilled. Hey, maybe you should be in on that too," she said thoughtfully, slipping her naked foot up his leg as he turned her bar stool to face him. 

"I don't think so, babe," he said, shaking his head distantly. 

"Why not? You're gonna be a real, shiny new offical Avenger soon. The public will want to know all about you before they let you do anything for them."

"Is it me, or is everyone more suspicious in this modern day? Back in my day, people heard 'Captain America and the Howling Commandos' and they accepted that as who we were. None of this 'who's behind the mask, we must know' bullshit," he said, narrowing his eyes. Darcy snorted, and set her coffee mug down.

"We just wanna know who's protecting us. Are you saying you don't want to know the identity of all the superheroes you meet just so you'll have some dirt on them?"

Bucky considered that, his real hand finding her thigh and rubbing tiny circles with his thumb on the flesh. Her skin tingled where he touched her. 

"You have a point," Bucky admitted, and then kissed her cheek gently, nose brushing her ear as he retreated. Darcy grinned, letting her mind wander back to the conversation she'd had earlier with her mom as Bucky grabbed the morning paper and flipped through it distantly. 

" _You've been dating James much longer than the other boys you've told me about. What's that about?_ "

Yeah, what _was_ that all about? Darcy hadn't actually _realized_ she'd been dating Bucky for a whole year until their anniversary had happened, and her mom was right. When she'd been dating other guys, they'd gotten too clingy or made her lose interest, or they'd just plain broken up due to an explosive fight.

With Bucky, everything was different.

He just kept unraveling before her eyes, and with every new layer that was revealed, she got more and more wrapped up in him. Like, only yesterday, she'd made Bucky try cotton candy, and he'd gotten this entranced look on his face as he told her about Coney Island back in his day. It was amazing, watching his personality form and crumble and build itself back up again. He was just... Amazing.

Caught up in her thoughts, Darcy barely noticed the elevator doors opening until she heard the soft ding. Bucky didn't even look away from his paper as a small, very naked body ran out. Said tiny body collided with Bucky's legs with a 'oof', and then, more excitedly, a "Bu!".

Bucky looked down to find Peter grinning up at him, all baby-sweet innocence, and Darcy tried to smother her laughter behind her hand as Bucky just stared at the naked toddler clinging to his leg for a moment. 

"Runnin' away from your dads already? Better not make that a habit," Bucky chided as he shook his leg gently, trying to get Peter to detach. Instead of doing as prompted, Peter just giggled and clung tighter, using all of his spider-baby powers to remain exactly where he shouldn't be. "Mind letting go of that? I'm gonna need it for kicking your dads asses."

Peter giggled. 

"Assss," he repeated giddily, and Darcy snickered. 

"Petey, sweetheart, don't take after Uncle Buck's potty mouth. Jarvis, do we have a parent in the vicinity?" she asked, leaning down to grab Peter from Bucky's leg. When offered an actual hug, he finally let go, and let himself be carried. 

"Captain Rogers is on his way down, Miss Lewis," Jarvis replied, sounding amused. 

"How'd the little punk get away? And... Naked?" Bucky questioned, not quite as creeped out by Peter as he'd been in the beginning. He had very little trouble with holding him now, but whenever Peter got whiny, he'd just up and leave the room to avoid any discomfort. 

"It's Master Peter's bath time, Sergeant," Jarvis explained. A harried Steve appeared from the elevator, and immediately breathed out when he saw Peter in Darcy's arms. 

"Jesus," he said, and approached. His white t-shirt was soaked through, and it was a _very_ good look on him, Darcy thought. "Don't run away from me like that, Peter."

"What happened?" Darcy asked as Peter was transfered to his father. He gave his pop's cheek a smooch, and that made Steve's lips curl upwards a little. 

"This little rascal is just like Tony, and is a fan of running around stark naked," Steve chuckled. 

"Please tell me that was intentional." Steve frowned, and then he burst out laughing. 

"It wasn't. Very appropriate though," he said. "Hey, Buck, when's Sam coming over today?"

"Sam!" Peter exclaimed happily, patting Steve's cheek excitedly and smearing a bunch of spiderweb on it. 

"At around one pm," Bucky replied, picking Darcy's mug up and sipping it. He grimaced. "Black? Really?"

"It's early," she said defensively.

"It's nearly one pm," Bucky stated, and she swiped her mug back from him with a pout. 

"It's early for me, since I was up late," she said promptly.

"You were up 'til ten pm. Max." She groaned. 

"Just let me sip my natural, black coffee in peace, James." He held his hands up in surrender, and wasn't that just amazing. Him being able to recognize when she was mock-upset with him and getting the joke. 

Steve also seemed to note this beautiful thing, and smiled brightly. 

"Great. I'll meet the two of you in the gym around then," he said, and backed up into the elevator, still with that bright smile. 

"Sure," Bucky agreed as the doors closed. 

Darcy was promptly lifted up on the kitchen island as soon as Steve and Peter had disappeared, and kissed senseless. Bucky rescued the coffee mug from getting shattered, but still managed to push all of his concentration into the kiss, making her dizzy. She curled her fingers in his short hair, not very happy that she didn't have enough leverage to tug, but happy enough to feel those gorgeous curls up front. 

"Wait," she breathed as Bucky leaned her down on the kitchen island. Immediately, he stopped, his hands next to her hips instead of on them, and he gave her a concerned look. To soothe him, she ran her hand through his hair once more. "What if someone sees us? We're in the middle of a kitchen."

He lowered himself over her, giving her a few hesitant kisses just to see how her reaction would be. He always was a fan of action over words. When she wrapped a leg around him, Bucky let the kisses get deeper, dirtier.

"Steve's obviously busy, Jane and Thor are out on a picnic, the twins are being evaluated by Stark and Banner, and Emma's out with Clint and Natalia getting a pet," he breathed between kisses. 

"You like living on the edge," Darcy moaned when he kissed his way down her neck, tugging on his shirt as thrills of pleasure shot through her. Instead of an articulate answer, Bucky just chuckled breathily, and began unbuttoning her shirt.

\---

"Who's this little guy?" Clint chuckled as he crouched down by the puppy. It had huge eyes and was wagging it's tail so hard it's entire body was practically shaking. 

"Focusing on the wrong pet, Clint," Natasha said smoothly, and grabbed him by the collar of his jacket to pull him standing again. 

"Oh c'mon! Why a cat? Maybe I'm allergic!" he exclaimed as he watched Emma prowl by the kittens. 

"You're only allergic to Texas and cleaning up messes that you make," Natasha said as she propelled him towards the kittens. Emma was making moon eyes at them, making soft cooing noises as she stared them all down. 

"I've never had a cat. Maybe I'm allergic. How would we know?" 

"Not only was Christine and Jimmy's house filled with cat-hair, it was also filled with kittens, and you didn't even sneeze. Nice try though," Natasha said, patting his cheek distantly. 

"Damn," he muttered, and saw Natasha's lips twitch out of the corner of his eye. "Alright Em. Your mom's convinced we're getting a cat when you haven't even taken a look at the pups around here. I know they'd slobber their way into your heart."

"We already have a dog," Emma said dismissively as she gazed adoringly at the kittens. "We don't have a cat. What do you have against them anyway?"

"I mean..." He shot Natasha a look, who raised a cool eyebrow his way, her arms crossed. "...Nothing, really. I just, we know how to take care of a dog. Why add a cat to the equation? What if Lucky and the new cat don't get along?"

"What would happen if we got a new dog and Lucky didn't get along with that?" Emma questioned, tilting her head back to look at him instead. Clint stared at his daughter for a moment. 

"We'd have to get rid of the new dog. No way in hell are we getting rid of Lucky."

"Then we're getting a cat," Emma declared, turning right back to the kittens. "Though these guys... They're not right."

"Not right?" Natasha questioned. 

"I'd love to get all of them, because having them trapped in tiny cages like these seems cruel," Emma said thoughtfully. "But they're also not... Right, y'know?"

"What kind of cat do you want, then?" Clint demanded. Emma looked up at him with an innocent smile. 

"Well, I was reading my Asgardian lore book with Thor earlier," she began, and Clint's eyebrows shot up.

"We're not getting you an Asgardian beast for a pet," Clint said firmly. "Nat?"

"No," Natasha agreed.

"No, no, no!" Emma laughed, standing up. "I don't want a beast. Well, a little, now that you mention it, but not as a pet. Anyway, Thor and I were discussing Freya, and she had this chariot that was dragged around by this kind of cat called a Norwegian forest cat."

"You want a Norwegian forest cat," Clint said, rubbing a hand over his face. "Of course you do. How big do those guys get, to be able to drag a chariot around anyway?"

"An adult female usually weighs in at 3.5 to 4.5 kg, and an adult male around 5,5 to 7,5 kg," Emma said, all freckled innocence as though she hadn't researched the crap out of Norwegian forest cats the moment she'd laid eyes on them.

"In American, please," Clint said. Emma grimaced, but tilted her head as she thought.

"Roughly 7 to 9 lbs on the female, and 12 to 17 lbs on the males," Emma relayed. Natasha murmured an expletive in Russian in surprise. 

"That is _heavy_ , sweetheart," Clint remarked, rubbing his chin as Natasha crossed her arms over her chest in thought. "How long do cats live, anyway?"

"Fourteen to sixteen years, give or take," Natasha sighed. 

"Holy shit," he murmured, and Emma grabbed a hold of his t-shirt. 

"Yeah, but huge, fluffy cats, dad! Huge, and fluffy! Both qualities you like," she pointed out, looking up at him with bright, dazzling eyes. He bit his lip.

"You've done your research, I guess?" Clint chuckled, brushing her hair back. Emma nodded vigorously. "Why did we even drive here when you obviously already had your mind set on a cat?"

"Because these small animals are so damn cute I might cry, and if I get the chance to be around them, I'm gonna be around them," Emma announced, smiling at him like she was so proud of him for figuring her out. Like he didn't do that shit for a living. 

"Alright," Clint sighed, rubbing the back of his neck distantly. "How do we get ahold of a Norwegian forest cat?" 

"I know how," Natasha said distantly, and grabbed the car keys from his pocket. "Let's go."

\---

And that's how Clint found himself buried under a pile of kittens, sitting on a random old lady's couch that Natasha was speaking some sort of weird mix of languages to. He'd assumed that it was a contact of hers, but from the few words he could make out, they weren't talking shop.

A kitten dug it's nails into his stomach, and he hissed, carefully plucking it from his lap and putting it down on the floor. The other three took one look at him, and decided the grey cat sprawled on the floor was more fun to harrass. Gratefully, he brushed some hair off of his jeans.

"Oh my god, they're so cute!" Emma exclaimed, and the old lady chuckled from the kitchen, smiling at Emma with a glint in her eye. She said something to Natasha in that weird garbled mixture of words, and Natasha smiled. 

"They're definitely old enough to be moved," she said to them, taking the cup of coffee the old lady was offering her with a nod.

"How'd you know about this?" Clint asked, as a white cat the size of a small dog prowled over to him and stared at him. He stared back, defiantly. "The kittens, I mean."

"I've had feelers out," Natasha said off-handedly. 

"On the off-chance that Emma wanted to get a cat that's nearly as big as Lucky," he replied in a monotone. Natasha arched an eyebrow. "Fine. You were right to do so." She gave him a small, victorious smile. 

"See how loving they are, dad?" Emma asked brightly, curled around one of the mothers and three of the kittens. The mother was an orange tabby-looking thing, and had green, piercing eyes, that looked down on her kids distantly. All three kittens were mixes of brown, white, and orange, and were pawing at Emma to get her affection. 

The white cat had decided he was fit to be her throne, and curled up in his lap, purring like a slightly quieter chainsaw. 

"They're going to push plants down from windowsills," he complained. 

"We don't have plants, or windowsills," Emma pointed out as she picked one of the kittens up and helped it curl up against her chest. 

"They shed like crazy. It's gonna be messy all the time," he added, maybe a little less pouty. The warm weight in his lap was kind of nice, really. Tenatively, he put his hand down on the soft, snow white fur. The purring became a little more chainsaw-y.

"Not only do we never vacuum, we have one that runs on it's own," Natasha said cooly. "Frankly, I don't think I've ever heard you complain that anything other than Kate's arrow organization is 'messy'."

"Her system doesn't make any _sense_ ," he grumbled, and the white cat's tail wrapped around his wrist. He began fluffing the very puffy fur up a little. 

"Clint," Natasha said, her tone exasperated and fond, and probably the greatest thing he'd heard today. He smiled up at her, and sighed. 

"Fine. I'm beat. Get a damn cat," he sighed, and almost as if understanding his decision, the white cat turned it's head to gaze at him approvingly. 

Emma squealed happily, and the tiny kitten pressed to her chest gave out a little answering meow.

"This is Victoria," Emma announced proudly as she presented the little fluffball. "She's coming home with us."

"How do you know it's a she?" Clint questioned. Emma frowned at him. 

"I checked, duh. They're so old, you can actually see what gender they are," she stated, matter of fact. Clint raised an eyebrow in surprise, and Natasha smiled. 

"Then it's settled then." She murmured something to the old lady, and the old lady exclaimed happily.

Half an hour later, and Emma was in the car, cooing at her new kitten. 

"Why Victoria?" Natasha asked curiously as she maneuvered the car through the New York City traffic easily. 

"Because," Emma explained patiently, "she's gonna be regal looking as hell when she grows up. She needs a regal sounding name, and she's not gonna be orange like a lion, and she's supposed to be forest-y anyway, so Forest Queen Victoria would be the only proper name."

"Right," Clint agreed sensibly. 

"I like it," Natasha said firmly. When Emma opened the door to the little cage to bring Victoria out, however, Natasha slapped her hand back to stop her. "Keep a lid on her until we get home."

"Alright," Emma agreed dejectedly, and closed the little door again.

\---

"A photoshoot?" Natasha said in a monotone. Darcy smiled pleadingly. 

"You guys must be crazy to think that you could just adopt a kid and not let the press in on every single detail," she said, hands on her hips. Her hair was up in a messy bun and she was wearing glasses, a vaguely Pepper-ish look of exasperation on her face. "I'm actually surprised you guys got a whole year with her without the press bombarding you."

"I'm sure they did, Pepper is just really good at deflecting," Tony said from the kitchen counter, where he and Bruce were hunched protectively around their coffeemaker. The twins were momentarily released from testing, and were playing with Victoria in the next room, along with Emma and Bucky.

"And now she's all out in the open, the press has pictures of her, has seen you three being adorable," Darcy went on, ignoring Tony's remark. Another one of Pepper's traits she seemed to be picking up. "They're not going to let it go this time."

"What about school? Emma's gonna get treated differently, and she doesn't want that," Clint argued, crossing his arms over his chest. 

"Do you even _know_ how cool you guys are? I mean, I'm not even trying to stroke your egos, but you're _superheroes_. You save the world. That's what you do for a living. Her coolness factor is going to skyrocket. The only thing that will change is how many will ask her to prom, and that doesn't even matter anyway, because, hello, devoted boyfriend."

"Speaking of, where's that devoted boyfriend been? I haven't seen his face around here for a while," Tony frowned. There was a woosh of air, and Pietro was suddenly standing next to Tony and his coffeemachine. 

"Out," he announced. 

"Out?" Clint questioned skeptically. 

"Emma said so," he shrugged, and gave the coffeemachine a speculative glance. 

"Oh no you don't," Tony said firmly, shifting it out of his reach. "Not only do I never want to see you hyped up on caffeine, I'm pretty sure you haven't eaten in at least three hours, and that would mean you'd be drinking coffee on an empty stomach, which would result in my untimely death by arrow, and I have a family to stay alive for. Go eat a banana or something."

Pietro moped, but grabbed a banana from the bowl of fruit that had become a constant since the twins took up residency in the tower. It'd only been three and a half weeks, but both were becoming steadily less gaunt-looking, and Wanda's hair had turned into a lush, flowing brown that seemed to shimmer with how healthy it now was.

To keep them both steady on their way to health, Clint had planted strategic snack spots where he knew the twins would find them. Natasha had called him a mother hen when she'd noticed, but with that fond note in her voice that meant he was being sweet.

"Damian's been 'out' for a while," Natasha remarked. Darcy shrugged. 

"He's a rich kid. He can skip as much school as he'd like. Right, Tony?" 

"I don't know what you're talking about, Lewis," Tony said from behind his coffee mug, with a faked air of incredulity, and Darcy grinned cheekily at him. 

"Sure you don't. Anyway, are we a yay or a nay on the interview plus photoshoot? Please say yes," she pleaded, smiling at the two of them and clasping her hands in front of herself.

Clint and Natasha traded looks. 

"Let's ask Emma," he suggested.

"Also ask her about boyfriend," Pietro said, his words muffled by the banana still in his mouth.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Bruce chided distantly as he flipped through his notes on a Starktab. "Bucky should get introduced to the public too. People are still a little iffy about him."

"That's what I said!" Darcy exclaimed. "He just didn't want to."

"Of course he didn't want to," Natasha said distastefully. "It takes time, and the questions they ask are personal and disgustingly intrusive. He barely even knows the answers to those. For example, who was your first kiss, which one of the others on your team do you have a crush on, et cetera."

"Really? That's what they asked you?" Clint asked incredulously. "Please tell me you said something about me." Natasha smiled wryly.

"I recall saying that I had no crushes on any of my team members, that it was unprofessional to ask me that just because I'm the only woman on the team, and that since we're not in high school anymore, the word 'crush' should be obsolete. I'm not sure they ever printed it," she said. Clint slapped a hand to his heart in mock-hurt.

"Tash, your words. They hurt me." She rolled her eyes at him, and patted his butt appreciatively.

"I never had a crush on you, birdbrain, since we are not high schoolers. I might've appreciated your physique, and your marksman skills, but I never had a _crush_."

"Liar, liar, pants on fire," he sing-songed, and was whacked over the head for it, and then pulled into a short, but telling kiss.

"Anyway," Darcy said pointedly. "We need her and Bucky in a photoshoot. She'll definitely make him seem less like an assassin. Still scary, but less like an assassin."

"Very smart thinking," Tony said, pointing at Darcy approvingly. "Since everyone is hellbent on getting him on the team, we need the people to like him. At least a little."

"We'll talk to them," Clint nodded, and slapped Pietro's hands away from the coffeemachine when he tried to reach for it. "No. We've been through this, Pietro. No coffee."

Pietro pouted furiously, and disappeared in a gust of wind.

"'Let's rescue these orphans', he said. 'It'll be fun', he said," Tony drawled.

"You've gotta admit, they're so interesting it makes you want to froth at the mouth," Clint smirked at him.

"Their powers are unbelievable," Bruce intoned, his voice filled with awe as he looked up from his tablet. "Their energy readouts and brain waves are like nothing I've ever seen before. Wanda's especially. It's crazy."

"Have you called Xavier?" Natasha asked pointedly, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Not yet," Tony said evasively. "We'll call him when we've got more data."

Bruce's phone dinged, and he picked it up with a furrow in his brow. When he saw whatever message he'd gotten, he smiled, a tiny little smile, and put his phone down again.

"Oh my god, Bruce, are you _smiling_? Over a _text_? Who was that?" Tony asked incredulously. Bruce blushed a little, and shoved his phone into his pocket.

"No one," he said defensively. 

"That was so not no one!" Tony grinned wolfishly. "Who was it?"

"No one," he tried again, and yelped when Tony shoved his hand into Bruce's pocket to steal the phone. "Tony, quit it!" He snapped it out of Tony's hand just as he caught a glimpse of the notification.

"Who's Betty?" he demanded.

"Oh Bruce, no," Darcy said, her voice soft and pitying.

"It's not like that!" Bruce exclaimed, exasperatedly.

"What Betty?" Tony asked.

"Bruce..." Darcy murmured, a sad look on her face.

"We're just talking! She's an interesting person to talk to! Why can't I have friends that aren't superheroes?" Bruce asked pleadingly.

"You can have friends that aren't superheroes. As long as they're not your old exes, who have fathers that want to kill you," Darcy stated matter of factly.

"Wait, Betty Ross?" Tony said, sounding scandalized. "Oh _Brucie-bear_ , even I can tell you that's a terrible idea."

Bruce threw his hands in the air, his coffee slooshing around dangerously.

"This is why I didn't tell any of you," he said, sounding frustrated. He picked his tablet up. "I'll be in the lab for whenever the twins are ready for more." And with that, he exited the room.

\---


	2. Photoshoots And Safety Concerns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo peeps!   
> Here's another chapter for you. Any comments and kudos are greatly appreciated because school is kicking my ass and I have so many tests coming up that just thinking about it makes me want to cry. Pls save me.  
> Enjoy!! <3

"I totally wanna do a photoshoot!" Emma exclaimed, loud enough that Victoria made an annoyed little wiggly-motion with her entire body. Immediately, Emma soothed the little furball, and Clint's first thought was, _damn is that cat going to get spoiled._

"Why?" Bucky asked as he skeptically looked the little kitten over. Victoria hadn't been openly against him yet, so there was still a chance that they would get along.

"It'll be so cool! I'll get take pretty pictures and I'll get to feel important and famous," she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder with an exaggeratedly haughty look on her face. Bucky snorted. 

"Think about the consequences it could have," Clint said patiently. "It could really screw up your school dynamic."

"What, it's not like people will start groveling for me to get media attention," Emma scoffed. 

"That's probably exactly what will happen," Natasha said. Emma's eyebrows furrowed. 

"Well that's just silly. It'll just be the one interview with the photoshoot, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"So then, after that, I'll be cool for a while, and then things will go back to normal. Best case scenario, I get a couple of new friends that aren't airheads. Worst case scenario, people fall to their knees as I walk by. Totally acceptable consequences," she shrugged. 

"Alright," Clint said. He turned his gaze on Bucky. "What about you?"

"What about me?" Bucky asked warily. 

"If Emma's in on it, are you?"

"Am I really that dependent on you?" Bucky asked Emma incredulously. She patted his leg reassuringly. 

"Kinda, yeah. But I'm cool with that! I'm all yours to be dependent on," she promised, and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Bucky stared blankly at her. Emma looked right back, smiling softly. "It's up to you."

Finally, Bucky's eye twitched.

"Fine," he said. "I'll do the stupid damn photoshoot."

"Yes!" Darcy exclaimed, sweeping into the room like she'd been listening to the entire conversation and didn't care if they knew. She had a very professional dress and high heels on, and was holding a pile of blue in one hand and something green in the other. "This is making my day. Get dressed, both of you." And then she tossed the blue pile at Bucky and the green heap at Emma.

Emma just about managed to save the green heap from getting into Victoria's grip, and placed the kitten on the floor. Immediately she began meowing, trying to get attention. 

Natasha crouched down and cooed at the little cat in Russian, and Victoria rushed over to her, pawing at her to get picked up. Natasha obliged, and stood with the kitten protectively in her arms. 

"See, that's what cats do, they snare you into giving them love and attention and then ignore you when someone better comes along," Clint said, shaking his head. 

"I thought we were over your hatred of cats, Clint," Natasha droned as Bucky unfolded the blue t-shirt in his arms. 

"Why do I have to wear this? This isn't even mine," he said as Emma made a pleased noise at her green sweatshirt and light blue jeans. 

"Hey, Pepper wanted to put you in a suit. I bargained down to making it more casual, but she wants you in that shirt. Blue is friendly, supposedly, and you need to seem friendly. Honestly, I'm surprised there aren't going to be puppies there for the shoot, just to make you seem less intimidating."

"It brings out your eyes," Clint smirked, and Bucky tossed a pillow at him without even looking away from Darcy. 

"Can I at least wear jeans?" he asked. 

"Dark blue. The ones that make people insanely jealous of your ass. Those ones, and those ones only," Darcy said, pointing to him sternly. Bucky jumped over the couch easily, and brushed his hand over Darcy's hip when he passed on his way to the elevator. "I want you in the garage, ready to go, in ten minutes. Don't make me send Steve and his disappointed puppy face after you!"

Emma had already pulled the green sweatshirt over her head, and was jumping into the jeans as she went. 

"Green Converse okay?" she asked as she rolled over the couch on her way towards her shoes. Darcy looked at her watch, noticing that the time was twenty past three.

"That'll have to do. JARVIS, mind telling Bucky that he doesn't have ten minutes anymore and that I want him downstairs as soon as he can manage without breaking anything?"

"Of course, Miss Lewis," Jarvis replied, sounding mildly amused in that nice voice of his. Darcy looked Clint and Natasha up and down critically.

"We really should've put more thought into this. Pietro!" He appeared beside her in a gush of wind. Darcy plucked Victoria out of Natasha's arms, and handed her over to him. "Keep track of the cat. I'm stealing the agents away for a while, we're going to a photoshoot. Don't break anything."

"Won't," he promised, and scratched Victoria under the chin, earning a pleased purr in return. "Can you..." He trailed off, and bit his lip.

"Do you guys need anything?" Clint asked pointedly. He'd learned early on, that while Pietro was cocky and always ready for a fight, he did not like asking for things. Neither did Wanda. It was obvious that neither of them wanted to be in more debt to them than they already were, which was something Clint was ready to wring out of them, if he had to.

"Wanda wants puzzle," he said. 

"A puzzle?" Natasha asked, curiously. Pietro shrugged, and curled almost protectively around Victoria. "How many pieces?"

"Many."

"Alright, we can get a puzzle for her," Clint said. "Anything you need?"

"Coffee," he said defiantly, and Clint chuckled. 

"You know that's not gonna do you any good, Pietro," he said. Darcy made a very angry noise, and tapped her wrist pointedly. "Calm the fuck down, Lewis, we're not on that tight of a schedule."

"Am I the one organizing this, or is it you, fuckass?" she asked him. Natasha rolled her eyes and shoved Clint towards the elevator. 

"We're going," Natasha agreed. "If you think of something that you want that you know we'll actually get you, give us a call, okay, Pietro?" Pietro just grumbled something into Victoria's furry head.

Emma was shuffled into the elevator with them, and on the way down, Natasha leaned against the glass wall of the private elevator, and sighed.

"I have a feeling we're going to meet caffeinated Pietro when we get back," she said.

"Great," Clint groaned, massaging the bridge of his nose. "That's gonna be a hoot and a half."

"You were the one that insisted we keep them," Natasha reminded him. 

"And now we're raising four kids instead of just two, yeah, I get it. They're just... They deserved so much better than what they got," he grumbled. Natasha saw the defensiveness in the way he set his shoulders, the way his jaw clenched. She grabbed his bicep gently, massaging the bulge of muscle there. 

"I know. I trust your instincts," she said quietly. "Sometimes more than my own, when it comes to people." His wide eyes turned on her. 

"Really?"

"I have a tendency to... Be more pessmistic than you. Think that people are beyond saving."

"You _are_ a little more Bert than Ernie." Natasha gave him a glare, and he smiled mischeviously. Natasha rolled her eyes fondly at him. "Aw crap, did I ruin the moment?"

"Yes, Clint. You ruined the moment." She leaned against the wall, crossing her arms over her chest, and liking the feel of her leather jacket curling over her elbows. Clint gazed at her, looking deadly and amazing next to him, casual yet ready to kick ass.

"I love you," he said softly, and Natasha turned her head to give him a quick smile. 

"Don't get sappy on me, Hawkeye." He grinned at her, that bright spark in his eyes that made her heart clench, trying to keep all of those squishy emotions contained. 

"Don't pretend it's not one of the reasons you love me, Widow." This time, when she shook her head and looked away, Clint placed a hand on her lower back, feeling her ribcage expand with her breathing and hating that he couldn't hear it.

\---

The studio Darcy guided them to was about the size of an apartment, with a high ceiling and a few groups of furniture spread out around the place. There were at least seven people there with cameras, and Darcy's gaze went from distracted to sharp to dangerous in the breath of a second, and Bucky is fiercely reminded that he really, really loves Darcy.

"The hell is this?" she muttered under her breath, and held a hand up. "Wait here for a second."

And then she proceded to calmly shoo the cameramen she did not order out through the other door, with scathing critique about their magazines and newspapers making them blush. When all were out, she waved them over, smiling sweetly at the man standing there with a notebook and a pen, who looked a little terrified. 

"Did you notify those guys?" she asked, her tone very professional and her smile very forgiving. 

"Well, I just thought-" the man began, and the smile fell away. 

"Alright, you're off the article. Get another journalist here in fifteen minutes, or the interview's off, and we'll be getting a hold of another paper to do this very prestigious piece." The man sputtered, and his face turned very red, but the camera dude grabbed him and led him away. 

When he strained, Bucky could hear them arguing over by the other door, snapping at each other about what to do.

"Dude, I told you not to call those guys," the cameraman was saying. He was young, scrawny, and obviously very done with the journalist's shit. "Any Avengers business that isn't announced via press conference is to be kept between them and the magazine they allow. They asked us specifically. You should've seen this coming."

"How the hell are we supposed to get someone down here in fifteen minutes? We're at least half an hour from the office, and nobody lives nearby!" the journalist fumed. 

"Well..." the camera guy hedged. "Actually, Lisa Daniels lives seven minutes away from here." 

"Seven minutes. That's a very accurate time frame," the journalist said pointedly, and the camera guy shrugged. "What pieces has she written? Has she covered anything like this?"

"Yeah, a few senators, a few big shots. She can do it."

"Call her. Right now. Make sure she's here ASAP."

The journalist informed Darcy, who nodded and shooed him off too, and then the camera guy approached them tenatively. 

"Uh, the journalist you wanted will be here in a few minutes, but we can start with the pictures if you're up for it?" he said questioningly. Darcy smiled her approval at him, and went off to make a phone call.

The camera guy's name was Ezra Shaw, and he was very nice, and told them to just act natural when he asked them to sit in a couch. Bucky had given him a dead-eyed stare when he suggested he join the little family on the couch, and hence, Ezra had only gotten a bunch of family photos by the time the journalist arrived. 

Lisa Daniels looked like she'd tossed everything she was wearing on in a rush, half of a donut in her mouth as she grabbed something from her messenger bag. She looked up at who she'd be interviewing, and dropped her donut in favor of gaping at them. 

She was wearing dungarees underneath a thick green bomberjacket, with a white and red shirt underneath the dungarees, and her blonde hair was messy and wild in a bun with a pencil stuck into it. She was wearing sneakers and looked like she'd gotten up in a hurry, a mascara smear on her cheek. 

"Fuck," Bucky heard her whisper under her breath as Darcy reappeared. 

"Lisa Daniels?" Darcy asked her, and Lisa turned her wide eyes to Darcy. 

"Uh, yeah. That's- that's me," she said, stretching a hand out towards her. Her black nail polish was chipped, but her grip was firm as she shook Darcy's hand. "So, uh. Should we get started?"

Lisa sat down on the table in front of the couch the agents and Emma were piled on, and Bucky took a seat in the plush chair next to it, staring intently at Lisa Daniels in profile. 

When she managed to get her bearings, she looked up at them shyly, and grinned a breathless grin. 

"You're Avengers. Ezra didn't say anything about you being Avengers," she declared. "I'm a huge fan. If you couldn't tell by the gaping and the stuttering and the flabbergastedness."

"We've had more dramatic fans," Clint assured her soothingly. "Perfectly normal response to our awesomeness."

"Humble, Barton," Bucky droned, and Lisa's blue eyes turned on him, and widened. 

"Oh," she said breathlessly. "The Winter Soldier. And two Avengers. And an Avengers kid. Wow. Is this some kind of prank? Ezra, this better not be some prank."

"It's not a prank," he assured her, and handed her a few pieces of paper. "Here's Jonsson's notes. Use them wisely." Lisa flipped through them quickly, nodding. 

"Right. Alright! Sorry about this, lemme just..." She ripped one of the pages in half, squinted at it, and then tossed it behind her. "Not gonna need that. Or that. Or that. Is Jonsson into really irrelevant questions or what? Alright, screw it. Let's just see how this goes. First question..."

Lisa was quick, and witty, and managed to wring answers out of all of them, and she'd filled nearly three pages of her notebook before she turned her intense focus onto Bucky. 

"Wait. You guys are best friends? Still?" she questioned. Emma looked over at Bucky expectantly, and he huffed a breath through his nose. 

"Yes," he replied. "Unless she's gone and gotten another one behind my back."

"Never," Emma smiled, and leaned over to pet his hand. 

"How does that work?" Lisa asked. 

"What do you mean, work?" Emma asked, furrowing her eyebrows. 

"I mean... Do you share interests? How did you become best friends in the first place?"

"We share a bunch of interests," Emma said, righteous indignation making her furrow more defined and her lips a little pouty. "Motorcycles, terrible puns, watching tv shows, old movies. Things like that."

"As for how... I'm still not entirely sure," Bucky said, letting Emma's slim fingers encircle his wrist. Or, at least try to. 

"She's like a very lovable little snake. She slithers into your heart without you noticing, and then slowly makes you turn into the best version of yourself," Clint decided, and Emma beamed at him, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Like that. See that? Do you know how often anyone ever kissed my cheek before Emma came into our lives? Never, that's how often."

"Maybe Thor, when he was feeling especially jovial," Natasha said thoughtfully.

"Not this frequently, at the very least." Lisa smiled. 

"You like cheering people up?" she asked Emma, who shrugged. 

"Of course I do. Who doesn't? I mean, I don't think I'll be rocking superhero tights or a doctor's robe when I grow up and get a job, but I like helping people. If I can."

Clint scoffed, and Lisa turned her intent eyes on her. 

"Would you like to comment on that?" she asked. 

"I'd just like to point out that she's turned a brainwashed, traumatized to the point where he didn't talk to or touch other people, WWII veteran into that," he said, waving towards Bucky. "She's very good at helping people."

"That's magical," Lisa said, giving Emma a curious look. "My granddad, he was in Nam, and he's never really been... As clear as he could be. It's a miracle if he can keep himself from needing to take a breather during a family dinner."

"I don't think I can take all the credit for Bucky's amazing come-back. He's also got himself to thank," Emma pointed out forcefully, and reached out with a toe to poke his knee. 

"You think you can take me in a fight? Don't embarrass yourself," Emma sing-songed, and Bucky raised an eyebrow in challenge at her as she pulled her foot free, and leaped over toward his chair. Bucky was up in a second, snatching her out of the air and tossing her over his shoulder like she weighed nothing more than a pillow.

Lisa stared, wide-eyed, as they grappled, maybe a little roughly. Or at least, it looked that way, but Natasha could tell that they were only being playful. Playful just meant something else for a super soldier knock-off and a very strong acrobat of a tiny girl.

"Alright, alright, cool your jets, kiddos," Clint called out, and Bucky froze up, like he'd momentarily forgotten where he was. Which was very unusual for him. Emma was clinging to his back like he was giving her a piggy back ride, and Bucky grabbed her under the thighs, hiking her up more safely. 

Natasha caught Ezra taking a picture out of the corner of her eye, and let herself smile, just a little. Bucky's image might be tainted, but maybe it wasn't completely irreparable. 

"Are you..." Lisa trailed off, giving Clint and Natasha shocked looks. "You guys are cool with that?"

"They like each other. Whenever we separate them for too long, they tend to snap back together like a rubber band and not leave each other's sides for a while. They help each other out on bad days. Their relationship is surprisingly healthy. Why should we not be cool with it?" Clint shot back.

Lisa nodded, looking on as Bucky patted her leg, and Emma slipped to the floor. Instead of sitting back down in the couch with her parents, she nudged Bucky into his chair, and took up the armrest, casually intertwining their fingers.

The messy blonde looked down on her notes for a moment, and sighed.

"I'm sorry that I have to ask this, because I'd at least like to _think_ that I'm working for a paper that's interested in bringing the people the information they really need to know, but are you currently in a relationship?"

"As your PR advisor, I suggest you don't answer that," came Darcy's call from where she was typing on her phone on the other side of the room. Natasha and Clint traded a look. 

"Yup," he said proudly, and Natasha shifted a little in her seat, taking a whiff of Clint's cologne almost without thinking about it. A disgustingly love-sick tendency of hers.

"Yes," Emma announced, and Bucky stared blankly at Lisa. 

"Yes," he answered. There was a pause in Darcy's typing, before it began again, even faster. Her restraint was admirable. Lisa's eyes were wide again. 

"Oh, wow, alright. Mr... Hawkeye, please tell me it's Black Widow you're in a relationship with, or I'm seriously going to lose faith in men." 

"As your PR advisor, I really wish you wouldn't answer that," Darcy said warningly.

"Y'see, if it was like that, would I want the world to know that it was Miss Widow here? We have a lot of enemies. I'm already taking a risk, just telling you I'm in a relationship. I wouldn't want to make anyone a target," Clint explained. Lisa tilted her head from side to side, considering. 

"I guess that makes sense," she agreed slowly. She cornered Bucky with a look. "And you?"

"What's the advice from my PR advisor?" he asked, turning to look at Darcy, who was chewing her lip.

"The PR advisor likes what Clint said, and thinks that it's a very legitimate reason to keep your girlfriend private," Darcy said carefully, and Bucky nodded. 

"You heard the lady," Bucky said to Lisa with a shrug. "Safety concerns."

"Yeah. And you, Emma?"

"I'm dating Da-" was as far as she got before Darcy's hand came down to cover her mouth, lightning-quick.

"As your PR advisor, I tell you to shut it. I've talked to his people, and they don't think it's a good idea yet," Darcy said, tilting Emma's head back to look her in the eye. "Alright?"

"Mhfm," was the prompt reply, and Darcy removed her hand. 

"Great. We have time for a few more questions and maybe a couple more pictures, but then we've gotta go. We've given more time than we signed off on," Darcy said, putting her hands on her hips. "So make it snappy."

"Yes Ma'm," Lisa agreed.

\---


	3. Happy News And Shadow Monsters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for not giving up on me, u are all saints. I don't think I'll be able to get anything else up before the end of the year, but I can always try!  
> Thanks for reading and commenting and being amazing, you make me want to continue my writing forever even though I really shouldn't.  
> Enjoy! <3

 

As soon as they got home, Emma passed the puzzle over to a harried Wanda, who immediately set up camp on the large kitchen table. Victoria was passed back to Emma, who immediately returned to the living room with Bucky in tow to play with the new, exciting kitten. Thor and Jane had returned like a half hour ago, long enough for Steve to explain the deal with Wanda and Pietro, and for Thor to give his Avengers seal of approval. 

Darcy swept her best friend and her best friend's boyfriend into the living room too, where Tony was dozing with Peter. The surprisingly still uncaffeinated Pietro had made himself an omelette and disappeared when Natasha asked him if he'd grabbed some toast too. 

Which left Clint alone in the kitchen with Wanda. Her hands were shaking as she moved the puzzle pieces frantically, trying to make a picture of the thousands of tiny pieces. 

"You okay?" he asked carefully as he sat down across from her. Wanda didn't look up, just stared at the tabletop and the pieces scattered across it. Her hair was long and flowing and trying to hide her face, and the dark red, thick sweater she loved so dearly made her look tiny and vulnerable. "Wanda."

Slowly, she turned her face up to look at him, her dark eyes dazed and flashing scarlet in regular pulses. She had purple moons under her eyes, and her skin was pale and sickly. Immediately, he started to worry. 

"Wanda, honey, are you alright? Can you hear me?" he asked her carefully. Her eyelids fluttered for a second, and when she looked at him again, her look wasn't scarlet anymore, but almost equally dazed. 

"Clint?" she said quietly, and he nodded. 

"Yeah, sweetheart. I'm here. What happened?"

"Just... Tired. Nightmares. Chaos," she mumbled in even more broken English than usual, grabbing a handful of puzzle pieces with a trembling hand and sorting through them with a determination he thought her incapable of.

"Your powers give you nightmares?" he asked, just to clarify. 

"Puzzles... Puzzles help," she said softly, as she plucked a piece out of seemingly nowhere and attatched it to another. They'd chosen a forest motive on the puzzle, because Emma said it was soothing and nice, and he wondered if she'd known what the puzzle was for. 

"Okay. Does anything else help?" he asked. "Anything I can help you with?"

"No," Wanda said shortly. "Just... Puzzles." He nodded. 

"Don't hesitate to tell me if you need anything. Or just ask your brother if I'm not around. Okay?" Clint demanded, and Wanda nodded, curling up a little on her chair and looking away from him again.

Without thinking, Clint grabbed one of the heating pads from the pantry by the microwave, and heated it up. Then he piled it into Wanda's lap, and left the room just in time to see her huddle up around it like it was a calming presence.

In the living room, all the Avengers, honorary or otherwise, were gathered, along with partners and kids, and Clint just stared at Emma, Pietro, Peter, and Victoria, piled into a makeshift nest Emma had doubtlessly whipped up on the spot, at Tony and Steve cuddled up on a love seat, Jane and Darcy pressed close and giggling, and Natasha sitting between Sam and Bucky, talking to them kindly. Bruce and Thor were discussing magic as Bruce sipped tea from a delicate cup, looking a little like a very lovable hedgehog with the way his hair was sticking up. 

Clint just stared at them, and smiled. This was his life now. He'd never been against having a big family. 

"I say family movie night!" he announced loudly, to be heard over the chatter of his teammates. There were murmurs and booms of agreement, and Pietro got to pick a movie. Wisely enough, he picked 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', and they all sat back to enjoy a movie they'd all seen a bunch of times before. Pizza was ordered, and people switched around in their seats the entire time, so Clint didn't notice Emma was sitting next to him until she crawled under his arm, Victoria following and crawling into his lap. 

He kissed her head distanly, petted Victoria when the little kitty butted his hand, and assumed he wasn't about to be ambushed.

Clint was, however, wrong.

"Dad?" Emma asked distantly, keeping her voice down to not disturb the others. Clint hummed, sipping his beer and not taking his eyes off the screen. "Why haven't you guys tried adopting another kid?"

He nearly choked on his swallow of beer, coughing to clear his throat. Natasha shot him a look, and he signed a ' **fine** ' to calm her.

"What?" he croaked. Emma's face was thoughtful.

"Actually, why haven't you guys tried for your own baby? You're a couple now. You have been since, like, forever. Why aren't you trying for more babies? That's what all parents do in all the movies," she said, turning her head to look at him. Victoria, like the little needy rat she was, dug her claws into his thighs and purred to get his attention. Emma began petting her. "Even if they already have kids."

Clint was stunned. 

"Just because we're together doesn't mean we're gonna be making babies," he began carefully, his voice quiet. "We've got you. We didn't even think we were gonna have you. You're more than enough to satisfy our parental needs, believe me." He kissed the top of her head, waiting for her to process that.

"Can mom not have kids?" Emma asked, very quickly, it was more of a breath than a question, really, and Clint sucked in a breath. "'Cause Bucky can't, and they worked for the same organization before they went good."

Clint swallowed hard, pulling Emma tighter into his side.

"They sterilized her when she was younger than you are now," he replied silently, so as to not be heard. "But we don't want a baby anyway. We're happy with you, you know that, right?" Emma nodded, and bit her lip, looking up at Clint.

"If you did adopt another kid though, I'd be fine with that," she said carefully. Clint chuckled.

"Was this the beginning of some elaborate scheme to get yourself a sibling? Isn't a dog, a cat, a demi-god, two supersoldiers, two geniuses, and two mutants enough for you?" he smiled. Emma shrugged.

"I dunno. I love all of them, but it feels like something's missing, y'know? Like I've got a puzzle but I'm missing a vital part to complete it," she said.

"Damian doesn't manage being a puzzle piece?" Clint questioned. Emma gave him a thoughtful look.

"That's a completely different puzzle," she decided, and turned to look at the tv again, getting reabsorbed in Raiders.

After another movie, there was a moment of commotion when Tony shot up from his seat, his phone in hand.

"Oh my god, Pepper's in labor!" he exclaimed. Pepper's pregnancy had been a breeze so far, and she was still ruling the company with the same iron-fist. If anything, Pepper's pregnancy made her even more efficient, however the hell that was possible.

The woman was a goddamned machine, her pregnancy hormones making her scarier and calmer than anything Tony had ever seen before, and even Happy had seemed a little intimidated by his wife's awesomeness. She'd had a lovely little bump by Steve and Tony's wedding, and now, in mid-October, she'd been in boots with big heels without problem, cradling her stomach lovingly. 

"What?!" everyone exclaimed simultaneously. 

"Isn't there at least a month left?" Darcy asked worriedly as Tony threw his coat on. 

"Yes! There is! She thought it was Braxton Hicks, but her water broke and they're at the hospital now," he said, wrestling with his shoes until he finally slipped into them, pulling a cap over his head. 

"Wish her luck!" Clint called over the general commotion, and Tony grinned. 

"I'm gonna be an uncle!" he cheered before disappearing. 

Immediately, the chatter in the room picked up, and Clint looked over at Natasha over Emma's head, and was suddenly hit with a wave of sadness, that Natasha would never even have the chance to have her own babies. Not that he thought she'd wanted to, but Natasha liked choices. He knew she liked being able to choose her tea every morning, because in the KGB, she was only allowed to be a puppet, never a person, never someone with needs. 

She met his eyes, and tilted her head in question at him.

" **What's the matter?** " she signed at him through the crowd that was just a buzz in his ears now. 

" **Nothing** ," he signed back, and Natasha raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him. 

" **Bullshit**." He smiled. 

" **Really, nothing. It's nice.** "

" **The baby?** " He signed yes. She smirked at him. " **You don't have the attention span or the patience for a baby, and I don't want one. Stop thinking about it.** " He gaped at her. 

" **That's not what I was thinking.** " Natasha raised the other eyebrow at him. 

" **I know you, Clint. Don't try me.** "

He threw his hands in the air to show off his incredulousness, and Natasha smiled and turned back to the TV. He could see Bucky shooting Darcy a look of pure terror, and Sam clapping him on the back with a look of sympathy. 

\---

When the call came, everyone exchanged a look, right before Steve pointedly said " _no._ "

"We need aerial support that can fly. Means of transportation. Sorry Clint, you don't fill those criteria," Bruce said. Clint shrugged as he stood up, giving Emma's hair a kiss and running out of the room. 

"No offence taken," he called from the elvators, where Natasha was quickly joining him. 

"Hey, I'm here," Sam said indignantly, waving his arms around. "The Falcon? The _flying_ Falcon?" 

"See? No need to pull Tony away from Pepper. Everyone, suit up!" Steve called as the entire living room burst into motion, Peter getting plopped down into Jane's waiting arms, some kisses being exchanged here and there between partners, until only Emma, Jane, Darcy, Peter, and Pietro, along with Victoria, remained.

"I feel like soldier's wife," Pietro remarked, a weirded-out look on his face. Jane laughed softly, and bounced Peter in her lap a little, making the little boy giggle.

"Just wait until you get to go out there too. You'll be just as giddy to go as they are now," she said, and handed Peter over to Pietro. "Darcy, we have to do that thing... Right?"

Darcy blinked her eyes back into focus, and nodded. 

"Yeah, that thing," she said immediately, and stood up along with Jane. "See ya. Important science stuff."

Emma raised an eyebrow as they trotted out of the room, and switched over to the news, filming the carnage happening on the streets outside. 

Turns out, this time, some things that looked like shadows were rampaging the streets, ripping fireposts out of the ground like weeds and breaking the roads with shadowy fists. Around twenty people had been rushed to the hospital by the time the Avengers had dropped down in spook central, and started kicking ass.

Everything was going fine, until one of the shadow creatures sliced Sam's jetpack wings, and he lost control and flew, headfirst, into a concrete building. 

Emma was on her feet before she knew what she was doing, feeling panic clawing it's way up her throat. She saw Steve make a run for him, and a shadow monster sliced the back of his uniform into shreds, red, bleeding welts appearing before he could slice it into submission with his shield. 

Just then, the caster switched from live footage to the studio, and Emma nearly yelled for them to switch it back. No Tony, no Iron Man, which meant she couldn't get any live footage from the camera in the helmet, which meant she couldn't see shit of what had happened to Sam, or Steve. 

Her feet were moving without her permission, she had to get out there, she had to _see_ them, she had to help them, she couldn't-

Pietro grabbed her arm with his lightning-quick reflexes, but Emma's elbow to his solar plexus was both fast and unexpected, and when he released her, the wind knocked out of him, she didn't even think before she swept his feet out from under him and ran to the elevators.

\---

People were running around like chickens with their heads cut off out on the streets, screaming and hiding, and trying to get through the crowd was like trying to swim upstreams. Too slow.

Emma looked up, and thought about the signs hanging above. She smirked, and launched herself at the nearest wall with a ladder, swinging her way up. Now that she had a vantage point, she could see more of the city ahead of her, the small pillars of smoke and heaps of rubble. She began jumping over the crowds of people, leaping over signs as she went and running towards her family. 

The rush of adrenaline was making Emma's hands steadier, her footfalls more sure, and she hadn't felt this kind of elation since last time she'd managed to beat Damian at sparring. Maybe she had to start sparring with the others more often. She could use the exercise.

She was nearly at the centre of things when there was the shrieking sound of metal being torn to bits behind her. Immediately, Emma froze, spinning around with her gard up, looking back to find the source of the sound. She was greeted with a shadow, claws the size of her arm, tearing its way through the metal signs. Up close, she could hear something like humming coming from inside of it, like a generator of some sort. 

Honing in her senses on the sound, Emma reached a hand out, palm flat, and clenched it into a fist. The shadow flickered a little, then it flickered even more, and then it just zapped out ouf existance, leaving behind a dusty metal chunk. 

"Uh," Emma said eloquently, and stared the lump of metal, looking a little like a powderized, crinkled coke-can. "Yay?"

She picked the tangled mess of metal up, and took a good look at it, flipping it around in her hands. Emma had never seen anything like it, and she'd seen a bunch of metal scrap in Tony's workshop over the course of a year and a half. This wasn't SI tech by a long shot. She could just about make out an H on one of the crumpled sides, and half of a wonky triangle on another. 

Emma shrugged, and shoved the little metal thing into her back pocket, wishing she had a belt with pouches and things, like Nat did. That would've made this a lot easier. 

Another four blocks in the same direction, and she came across two shadows, holding onto a school bus and making it dance precariously on two wheels. Quickly, and without actually thinking it through, Emma launched herself off the ledge she'd been standing on, and tucked and rolled when she touched ground.

The shadows were obliterated by the whips of her mind, and turned into look-alikes of the block of metal she had in her pocket, but she really should've accounted for the bus, on it's two wheels, being pulled back to Earth by the loving bitch called gravity. Gravity didn't particularly care if the bus went back onto four wheels, or toppled to the side.

Of course, Emma did.

"No, no no no, nonono!" she exclaimed as the kids screamed. Emma acted on instinct, grabbing the bus right out of the air with a panicked screech. The metal bent around her fingers, and she gasped as she stood there, holding a bus about to flip up on her tip toes. "Fuck fuck _fuck_!"

"What the fuck!" came Bucky's yell as he appeared by her side, grabbing hold of the bus like she had, and tipping it back onto four wheels. When they pulled their hands away, there were four hand-shaped dents in the yellow metal, and Emma laughed breathlessly, staring in shock at the bus, and at Bucky's bewildered face. 

"You're missing an Avenger!" she pointed out, loud enough to be heard over the commotion of the kids in the bus realigning themselves. "I thought I could help."

"Goddammit Em!" Bucky growled, and Emma laughed a little breathlessly again, looking up at his face dazedly. 

"That was amazing," she said, and stared at her hands for a second. They looked just like they always had, no scratches, no pain from grabbing a _whole goddamn bus full of children._ What had even posessed her to do that?

"Your parents are gonna kill you!" Bucky said as he put his hands on his hips, and Emma shot him a grin. 

"Hey, maybe I'll get grounded for the first time in my life! That'd be kind of cool," she said. "Did you figure out anything useful on how to get rid of the shadows? How's Sam? Is Steve okay?"

Bucky shook his head, trying to clear some battle haze from his eyes. 

"Cap's fine, Falcon's got a concussion and 's at the hospital, and yes, thanks. Now, you're going to turn around and march your little ass right back to the safe, comfy tower." Emma pouted. 

"I don't wanna."

"This isn't about 'wanna'. This is 'bout not dying," he snarled, and Emma frowned at him. 

"C'mon. What've you figured out about the shadows?" The kids in the bus had began taking pictures of the two of them, eyes wide at seeing the Winter Soldier in full regalia, and a kid talking to each other. She doubted anyone knew who she was, after all. 

"They've been transported here from another dimension, Widow and Cap are finding the genius jackass who's equipped them with the tech to do so, and we're all fine. Go home."

"Dude, I'm helping!"

"Are you aerial support?"

"Well, no-"

"Then go home," Bucky said. His eyes flicked to the side as he listened to the comm in his ear. "Got it," he said, and nodded. He pointed to her. "Go home. Now."

Emma pouted, but waited until he'd dashed off to the next block to turn to the kids pressing their faces to the windows of the schoolbus. She grinned crookedly at them, and then ran off after him.

She managed to disintegrate six shadows before she had another run-in with an Avenger. A building above her cracked as Thor collided with it, and some of the larger blocks fell down in huge chunks at the screaming civilians underneath. Thor came out of the dust with a battle cry, swinging Mjölnir in a controlled little circle, and disappearing in the same direction he came from.

Emma watched as a big piece of concrete tumbled through the sky, aiming right for a man holding a little girl. She began running towards them, and when she'd mentally done the math, she jumped up against the wall just behind the two of them.

Using the wall as a springboard, Emma launched herself through the air, grabbing the large chunk and launching it into the road instead of onto this guy and the kid. 

The chunk buried itself into the concrete, and mentally she winced, but physically, she tucked and rolled, landing sloppily and scraping her knees. Well, it's not like these jeans wouldn't benefit from it. _Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy_ , Ralph's sticky-sweet voice sounded in her head, and Emma shook it, blinking her surroundings back into focus.

Turning her head to see the stunned guy and the kid still standing there, she channeled her inner Natasha, and pressed her lips tight together. 

"Go! Get out of here!" she yelled at them, and the guy snapped into motion, running away. Emma went over to the chunk in the road, and frowned at it. She'd have to be more careful next time. She pulverised the rock with a sizzling thought it's way, and turned around to see Clint gawk at her. 

"Emma?!" he yelled, and she noticed the way his voice climbed in anger and shock. She frowned. 

"I have a healing factor, worry about yourself," she yelled at him, and took off towards the main battle, making shadows explode with her mind as she went. She saw the flash of a red cape over her, and cupped her hands around her mouth to yell. "Thor!"

Thor swooped through the air, and stopped to look at her for an amazed second.

"Emma!" That was Natasha's angered yell coming from behind her, and Emma winced at it. 

"Thor, gimme a boost!" she pleaded, and Thor looked conflicted.

"Your godlikeness will not stop me if you pick her up!" Clint yelled over the comms as he began running towards them. "I swear to god I'll make your bed a snake-bath!"

"Help me save people," Emma pleaded, reaching her hand out towards him. Thor finally took her hand, and pulled her up on his back. Clint yelled expletives and various snake-themed threats after them as they swept through the air, and Emma stared amazedly down at the battle going on underneath their feet, until the battle was behind them all of a sudden?

"Thor, no! C'mon!" Emma whined as she saw the tower appearing in the distance, punching his shoulder.

"You are a warrior, but you are also but a child," Thor said soothingly as he put her down on the roof, not in the least bothered by her angry wriggling. "Learn when it is time to be one or the other."

He took off again, with a boom of the soundbarrier breaking as he hastily rushed back to the battle, and Emma pouted as she kicked the roof. Then her face flushed as she realized how childish that was, and she resisted the urge to kick the roof again. "Fuck. I saved people!"

There was a flutter of wind, and Pietro appeared, both eyebrows raised as he looked down at her. 

"If we are not ready, you are not ready," he said with a tut. Emma grumbled, and Wanda appeared, wearing a thick maroon sweater that was possibly Bruce's. Both of those two had some serious temperature issues, and Wanda seemed to like huge sweaters as much as him, too. 

"What are you doing?" she asked, eyes narrowed like she hadn't even opened them today, and was hating the sunlight for existing. She had shadows under her eyes that looked more like bruises, but her eyes were clearer than they had been when they got back from the interview. 

"Emma tried to fight," Pietro said with a mocking smile, and Emma clocked him in the side angrily. He snickered as he scooted away from her, but quite slowly. Human speed, really. 

"I just want to know what's going on!" Emma complained. Wanda's eyes flashed scarlet and she tilted her head. 

"Natalia and Clint are helping civilians, Thor is flying, Sam is in hospital, Steve is fighting, and Winter Soldier is-" She broke off in confusion. "Holding a small child?"

"What? How can you _possibly_ know that?" Emma gaped in awe at the taller brunette. Wanda smiled at her, her eyes glinting scarlet as her red-glinting fingers curved just the slightest bit just in front of Emma's face, and when Emma blinked her eyes back open, she was seeing the world through other eyes.

She could hear snuffling, and almost immediately realized that this was Bucky's _mind_ she was in, his thoughts as clear and cut as ice, with thunder rumbling in the background. Bucky's arm was wrapped around a very tiny body, and he was running down streets wracked with cracks and jagged asphalt, not letting the tiny kid he was holding slow him down. 

The snuffling turned very suddenly into crying, and Emma actually felt Bucky's thoughts of safe places to put the kid down grind to a halt. It was one of the weirdest things she'd ever felt in her entire life, and _boy_ had she been through some weird shit. 

"Hey, hey, calm down," Bucky said, his voice sounding calm to anyone but Emma, the underlying tone of panic backed up by the alarm going off in Bucky's mind. It sounded something like _ohgodohgodsomeonehelpmeohgod_ , and Emma was as fascinated as she was worried. "Hey, no need to cry. I'll find your parents, okay? What's your name?"

The kid leaned back in his arms a little, grabbing hold of his tac-vest to stay attached to him, and Emma stared at the chubby cheeks, the dark skin, the curly hair and the big, wet brown eyes. 

"Leia," the little girl sniffed, her little lower lip trembling. 

"Leia? Like the princess?" Bucky asked as his eyes scanned the surrounding buildings for shadows. "Do your parents like Star Wars, Leia?"

"Yeah," she answered, her brown eyes widening at him. She had a button nose, and was probably around five, six years old. She glanced at the metal arm on the other side of his torso, and her eyes went even bigger, the size of saucers. "Are you Anakin?" she nearly whispered, and Bucky huffed out a laugh.

"You wouldn't believe how many people get us mixed up," he told her, and Leia frowned a little. 

"Anakin goes dark side. Are you gonna go dark side?" she questioned.

"No," Bucky said, and Emma could feel his conviction behind that one word. She was just about to pull some threads to see what else she could feel in here, when something that felt like a slap to the face brought her back into her own body. 

Pietro was keeping her standing with both hands holding her shoulders, looking pissed and snapping at Wanda in Sokovian. She gave as good as she got, apparently, and flicked Pietro's ear when he said something particularly scalding. 

"Whoah," Emma said, and both pairs of eyes snapped to her.

"Are you alright?" Pietro asked quickly.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Emma said, brushing off the dizzyness and stepping back from his supportive hands. "Just- Whoah. Is that what you do all the time?"

Wanda shrugged. 

"Not really. I can... I can make people see things that aren't there."

"Whooooah," Emma gasped, eyes wide. "That's _so_ cool."

"It destroys her," Pietro clucked, and Wanda rolled her eyes fondly at him. 

"Don't worry," she said soothingly, brushing a hand through his silvery hair. Pietro muttered something in Sokovian, but dragged her into a one-armed hug, and swept Emma in under his other arm.

"Let's watch Adventure time," he urged, and tugged the two of them towards the elevator.

\---


	4. Consequences And Babies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I could get something else up during 2016. I was wrong, sad to say. So! Happy 2017! Cheers. Thank god 2016 is over.   
> Anyway, enjoy! <3

 

The Avengers got home to the tower pretty late, bruised and battered, but no one had any injury worthy of going to the hospital for. Natasha had a gash on her thigh that Clint had stitched up on the fly, and she'd managed not to rip them, but that didn't mean her leg didn't hurt like hell. All they wanted was a shower and a bed, but obviously, they had to deal with Emma first.

They shooed everyone out of the living room, and sat Emma down in the couch, remaining standing in front of her. Clint crossed his arms, and Emma did the same in return, staring up at them unblinkingly. 

After a tense silence, Emma huffed out a frustrated noise. 

"I didn't do anything you wouldn't have done!" she exclaimed. "I was just helping! You like it when I help!"

"At home, sure. In the battlefield, not so much," Natasha said sharply, and Emma's gaze flickered just the slightest. Her parents could be damn scary when they wanted to be.

"I just wanted to help!" Emma said, her voice not quite so strong or with all that conviction. 

"What you did was irresponsible, dangerous, and could've gotten you killed," Natasha pressed. Clint uncrossed his arms to run his hands over his face, trying to stave off a headache and get the residual fear to leave his system. Emma was here. Emma was fine. Emma had suffered no injuries before Thor had managed to snatch her up and bring her back to the tower.

"What were you thinking? Why would you go after us like that? You've seen us fight before, and you've never run after us like that. You know better than that," Clint said, throwing his hands up. Emma looked between the two of them, her lower lip trembling just a little, and then she looked down onto the carpet. 

"Tony wasn't with you," Emma said weakly, just a mumble. 

"You know I can't hear you. Look at me," Clint said patiently, and Emma looked up to meet his eyes. 

"Tony wasn't with you," she repeated, louder, distractedly signing 'Tony'.

"And what does that have to do with anything?" Natasha asked as she uncrossed her arms, putting a lid on her angry and worried feelings. 

"Tony wasn't with you, and I couldn't see you, and I got scared, because Sam got tossed into a _wall_ , and these reporters just kept repeating useless things that I didn't need to hear, and I needed to see that you were okay, okay?!" she exclaimed, her volume rising with every word. 

The agents processed that, and then Clint dropped down onto his haunches, taking Emma's tiny hands into his. He squeezed gently. 

"Sweetheart," he said, swallowing back any possible sharp edges the worry might have left in its wake. "What we do is very very very dangerous, but the reason we get to do all of these dangerous things, is because we're trained to do it. And yes, you can kill people. Anyone can kill people. But we've been trained to handle all of those other things that come up during battles. Strategy, possible outcomes, things that you don't know anything about. This is our job. We're good at it. You gotta let us do our job without worrying about you too. Okay?" 

"But I can help!" Emma pressed, and Clint smiled at her. 

"Yeah, but..." He thought about it for a second. "Okay. What's that guy called in your tv show with the corpses? Bath? Beck?"

"Booth?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"Yeah, him. Doesn't he have a kid?"

"Yeah, Parker."

"Right. Does Booth ever bring Parker to where the murderers are hiding?"

"Well, no, but-"

"But nothing! It's the same for us. You being out on the battlefield with us is the same thing as Parker running into a murderer's hide-out. You gotta admit, that's not something Booth would want."

"Well, obviously not." Clint gave her a pointed look, and Emma's eyes widened. "Oh."

Natasha sat down next to Emma on the couch, and gave a miniscule sigh. 

"You're allowed to help people. Just not our way. Our way is too dangerous for you. We don't want you getting hurt, or worse, just because you aren't trained for what you're doing," she said, and brushed Emma's hair back a little. 

"But if you guys train me, I'll be ready! I can help!" Emma urged, nodding encouragingly at Clint. 

"Whoah, whoa! What happened to not wanting to be a superhero? I loved that plan," he groaned, sitting back on the coffee-table. His knee was killing him, and he absently rubbed it, hoping to get some of the soreness out. Natasha's knowing eyes flicked to his hand, and she raised an eyebrow. 

"Well, I..." Emma trailed off, and looked down at her hands, no longer clasped in his grasp. "I wanna help," she said one last time, a little petulantly.

"Help by becoming a doctor and curing cancer. Or something like that. End world hunger? Cure other terrible diseases?" 

"That might be a little too ambitious," Natasha said. "Not that you shouldn't try, just. Maybe don't be too disappointed if you end up not accomplishing your goals."

"No bar is too high," Clint said indignantly, and Natasha raised the other eyebrow at him, opening her mouth to reply just when Steve poked his head in through the door, looking unsure of if he was even allowed in.

"Um, hey you guys. We're going to the hospital. You wanna come with us?" he asked quietly, Peter asleep on his shoulder.

"What, why? Was someone lying about how okay they were?" Natasha asked. Steve smiled and sighed fondly, and a little exasperatedly, as if he couldn't believe these idiots were allowed to legally carry firearms. 

"Pepper is still having a baby," he pointed out, looking like a very proud uncle in the making.

"Oh. Right," Clint remembered. "How long does that take, anyway?"

"It can take, like, _forever_!" Emma whispered with big eyes. "Darcy told me her brother took over seventeen hours to come out!"

"Holy mother of _god_ , that poor woman!" Clint whispered back, his eyes just as wide. "Does that mean we need to leave now?"

"Tony called and said so," Steve replied. "So, you comin' or not?"

"Sure!" Emma smiled, and hopped over the couch before the agents had a chance to argue. She was out in the hallway and on her way to her shoes by the time the agents had exchanged meaningful looks. 

"Thanks Steve," Clint sighed as they walked past him, and Steve gave them both a sheepish smile that made him just radiate 'America's sweetheart'. Natasha brushed past him, unaffected, and Clint was happy that Natasha loved him with someone as attractive and puppy-dog eyed as Steve around. 

Wanda was standing in the hallway, along with Pietro, holding Victoria in her arms and burrowing into her soft fur. 

"Do you want to come with us?" Natasha asked, and Wanda narrowed her eyes at her in disgust. 

"Birth is... Gorey," Wanda remarked, her delicate looking lips curling into a grossed-out frown. "I don't want to."

"Then you don't have to. It's good that you're staying home, that means you can keep track of Victoria so she doesn't get lonely. Pietro?" 

Pietro shook his head with big eyes.

" _Gorey_ ," he pressed.

"You're gonna have to deal with a lot worse as superheroes," Clint remarked. "The miracle of life and birth is nothing in comparison. Believe me."

"When did you see the miracle of life and birth?" Natasha questioned, and Clint raised an eyebrow at her. 

"Nicaragua? Remember?"

"Which time?"

"Second to last time."

"Oh. Right."

"Yeah," Clint smiled. 

"Now, _that_ was gorey," Natasha muttered. 

"Alright, you can stay. Don't break anything, and call us if you get in a pinch, okay?" Clint said. The twins nodded, and Clint nodded back, and then he put his shoes on and they were off.

\---

They met a harried Happy and Tony at the hospital, and then they buckled down in the waiting room to, well, wait. Emma was bored within minutes, wedged between her parents and unable to reach her phone. She drummed her fingers on her legs for a few moments, sighing, until Natasha gently placed a hand over her restless hands. 

"If you want to take a lap around the hospital, bring Bucky with you please," Natasha said, not even looking up from the magazine she held in her other hand. Emma swallowed back a lump in her throat at how dismissive Natasha sounded like that, and she stood up. 

"Right, yeah," she said, nodding. Now that she was standing, she could finally feel out where she left her phone. Emma patted her front pocket, and came up with something hard, metal, and definitely not her phone. "Oh. Oh! Tony?"

Tony looked back at her, raising an eyebrow. 

"No need to shout, darling. I'm right here," he drawled, but his eyes kept flicking over to the door where Pepper was. She'd apparently all but shoved Happy and Tony out of the room when she began having stronger contractions, and both looked like kicked puppies about it. 

Emma walked up to him, and shoved her hand in her pocket to pull out the metal clump, and handed it to him. His eyes turned calculating. 

"What's this?"

"Well, I was out fighting-"

"You were _what_ -"

"Don't be a hypocrite, Tony, it's unbecoming of you, and anyway, they were fighting shadow monsters, and when I used my powers on them, they turned into these little things." Tony gave her a squinty glare, but began examining the device. His eyes widened when he saw the H on the one side, and he flipped it over until he found the wonky triangle she'd noticed earlier. 

"Son of a bitch!" he exclaimed, and whipped around to point to Steve and Natasha. "Who'd you capture?"

"A deranged asshole who had all the materials in his shop to make teleportation devices," Natasha said, looking up from her magazine.

"Why?" Steve asked, glancing at Peter who was asleep in Thor's lap, draped over him like Thor was but a large chair. Tony held up the cube. 

"Nobody thought that there might be something iffy with him? Did anyone check his accounts? Maybe he was sponsored by, say, _Hammer_?" Natasha was already taking her phone out, dialing Hill. 

"Where'd you get that?" Clint asked curiously. 

"Your kid. She's irresponsible and smart and just my type of person," Tony relayed, and Clint and Natasha both gave Emma looks of confusion. "This is just shoddy work. Hammer sucks."

"That's Hammer tech? That explains why it crumpled so easily," Emma remarked. 

"You have good taste in tech," Tony said approvingly.

"Oh," Bucky said, looking at the little metal clump in Tony's hands. "Right, you turned those two shadows by the bus into that."

"Well, this is another shadow," Emma relayed. "Earlier on in my crunching spree."

"The bus?" Tony inquired. 

"We flipped a bus back onto it's four wheels," Bucky replied, and burrowed into his hoodie a little. 

"A school bus?" Darcy asked, giving him a surprised look from next to him. Bucky nodded, running his flesh-hand through his hair.

"Oh, I forgot, did Leia get to her parents okay?" Emma asked, and Bucky gave her a blank stare. 

"Leia," he repeated steadily. Everyone gave him a confused look, except Natasha, who had grabbed the clump of metal from Tony's hand, and moved down the hallway towards the entrance. "How do you know about Leia?"

"Oh, right, shit! Sorry! Wanda showed me this cool mind-trick thing where I got to see things through your eyes like a camera, and I got to peek in at just around the time when you were carrying her to safety."

"Leia?" Darcy questioned.

"Cute kid, thought he looked like Anakin," Emma smiled, and Darcy cooed. Bucky shrugged. 

"She was cute," he agreed.

"Wait, wait, wait. You let Wanda play with your mind?" Clint asked incredulously.

"Well-"

"That was incredibly irresponsible of you," Clint said, his voice flat and disapproving. Emma wilted a little. 

"She had it under control," she protested. 

"I got Leia to the medics. Her mom got her leg broken, and her dad nearly got crushed by some debris, but they were all fine in the end," Bucky shot in, giving Clint a death glare. "You didn't get into any trouble in my brain, did you?"

"No, Wanda pulled me out before I got a chance to get into anything but your surface thoughts."

"That's cool," Bucky said, and Emma grinned at him. 

"I know, right? Why aren't my powers that cool?" she whined. 

"The cooler the power, the more crazy, doll. You haven't got enough crazy to earn yourself a cooler power," Bucky shrugged simply. "See, now, Wanda's off her rocker. Which means her power gets to be very cool."

"Wanda's not off her rocker," Emma said as she sat down on the other side of Bucky, curling up under his arm. Bruce made a noise of disagreement from his chair. He looked up from his phone, and wrinkled his nose. 

"Her brain chemicals are severely out of balance," he said. "I'm actually surprised she makes as much coherent sense as she does."

"Totally out of whack, and you let her experiment on your brain?" Clint said calmly, contradicting the way his fingers were clenching into fists in his pockets. 

"Not experiment. She'd done it before, apparently. Pietro doesn't like it because it drains her," Emma replied promptly. "Nothing to be concerned about." 

"I'm raising a maniac," he sighed, sinking back into his chair. Emma dashed over to kiss his cheek and then hopped back to her seat next to Bucky.

"But you love me. Right?" she said sweetly. 

"Yeah, sweetie," Clint smiled, leaning his head back against the wall. "Sure do."

"Then that's all that matters."

\---

Pepper finally let Happy and Tony in to her room when she was about to push, and Tony promptly fainted and tripped Happy, who got a concussion for his trouble. While that was amusing and all, it now left Pepper in tears, and Natasha was shoved into the room to endure labor with her as they patched the two idiots up. 

Finally, after another hour, Pepper and Happy's baby boy was born, and after another half hour, everyone was let in to check on them. 

"He's so precious," Darcy cooed at the little boy in Pepper's arms, and Clint grinned at her.

"Want one of your own?" he asked. 

"God no," she replied with a burst of laughter. "Not anytime soon." Emma saw Bucky deflate a little, and hum. 

"He's tiny," Bucky remarked. 

"Babies have to be tiny, so they fit," Emma reasoned, and Bucky nodded, accepting that answer as the truth. Bruce gave them an incredulous look, but shook his head and left it at that. 

Pepper smiled a soft smile at the lot of them. She only looked mildly dishevled from her hours of labor, and she would probably be ready to hop into a board meeting any minute. Emma's very intimidated by how cool she is, and Natasha is currently very baffled and a little impressed. 

"Where are my two knuckleheads?" Pepper asked sweetly, and there was a fumbling in the doorway when Tony and Happy made their way into the crowded room. It barely mattered that Tony had made sure Pepper got the biggest suite the hospital offered, there were several well-muscled people stuffed into the same room, and that made for a tight fit. 

"Where's my baby?" Happy exclaimed as everyone shifted to make room. Tony got to the other side of the bed, and they both began cooing and making happy stunned faces. 

Emma snapped a picture and sent it off to Damian, although she wasn't expecting an answer. He hadn't answered her calls since the twins came to live with them, and with school having started up, she thought she'd be able to wring some information from her teachers. Sadly enough, Mr. Fitz had been just as clueless, and had only said Damian was on vacation. Nevertheless, she could always hope for a reply.

After both Tony and Happy had gotten their fill of loving the new baby, Clint was allowed to hold the little bundle of joy. Natasha bit her lip as she watched his soft smile at the little baby, and Bucky patted her back, in compainionship, in sympathy, in a 'we're in the same boat' manner.

"He's going to be even more terrible to you than Tony is, and that's saying something," Clint said as he swayed a little with the newborn in his arms. Pepper smiled softly. "You should name him Anothony Junior just for that."

"Another Tony for me to deal with?" Pepper laughed quietly. 

"AJ for short," Clint suggested.

"We'll see," she said mysteriously, and smiled at Happy. 

Natasha doesn't touch the little baby until it's safely in it's mother's arms again. Clint doesn't mention it.

\---

By the time they got back to the tower it was _really_ late, and everyone was still bruised and exhausted, so they retreated to their separate dwellings.

"You sure you haven't ripped your stitches?" Clint asked Natasha as he fiddled with his hearing aid. She nodded, and peeled off her pants to make sure she wasn't lying. It didn't feel like she was, but you could never be too sure with her pain tolerance. Lucky for her, Clint's neat-looking stitches were still there, unharmed.

"How's the arm?" she asked him. He considered that, and moved it around in it's socket. 

"Still there," he replied. "Hasn't fallen off yet. It was just out of it's socket. I'm fine."

Natasha hummed distantly, and cupped the back of his head to kiss him gently before climbing into bed.

"Bucky thinks we overdid it with the parenting," Clint said as he did the same.

"I think our situation is a little special in comparison to other parents," Natasha remarked. "Also, he's really not one to talk. He can barely take care of himself most of the time."

"Well, it takes a village, you know. Maybe we should let Coulson talk to her. He's good with explaining why people can't take stupid risks like that. Do you think his disapproving voice will work on her?" Clint asked. 

"Like father, like daughter," Natasha shrugged. 

"Hey, it does not affect me! My resolve is like steel," he said indignantly, and Natasha pinched his side. 

"It really isn't," she remarked as he yelped and grabbed her hands, swinging over her and kissing her sweetly.

"I could take Coulson's disapproving voice."

"I've seen you buckle and cave under it before. I don't buy it," she retorted, overpowering him and tossing him back onto the sheets, kissing down his neck. 

"Remember when I got hit in the head today?" he remarked. Natasha sat back up.

"Nothing, huh?"

"I'm as frustrated as you are, Tash, believe me. Mild concussions suck dick." Natasha hummed. 

"Apparently not enough to get it up."

"Sorry."

"No, no. It's fine. You take a breather," she said, patting his broad, chiseled chest. She rolled off of him, and propped her head up on an arm to look down on him. They stayed silent for a while, just gazing at each other, until Clint swallowed. 

"Y'know, Emma cornered me earlier about... Siblings."

"Siblings," Natasha repeated. 

"We don't give Emma nearly enough credit for how observant she is," he said. "She'd found out that Bucky was sterile at some point in their freaky friendship, and determined that must mean you're sterile too, because you both worked for the Russians."

Natasha stayed silent.

"And I told her the truth, because there's no use in lying to her. I'm sorry."

"For what?" Natasha managed after a few seconds. Clint rolled onto his side to trace the curve of her shoulder through one of his t-shirts.

"For sharing your secret. It was only Emma. I promise it won't happen again." Natasha gave him a pretty, albeit a little sad smile. 

"I understand. It's... She needed to know," Natasha said fairly, and Clint really, really loved this woman. He nodded and gave her a quick peck on the lips. 

"Thanks for not ripping my balls off."

"If anyone asks, that's exactly what I did."

"Gotta live up to the Black Widow name."

"Black Widows eat their mates."

"I wouldn't be adverse to some eating."

"Says Mr. Current-Impotence."

Clint gasped as Natasha chuckled, and he gave her another quick peck.

Suddently, there was a knock on the doorframe, and Natasha looked up, making Clint mimic the movement. The door opened a crack, and Emma's favorite Hawkeye shirt could be seen through the gap. A gorgeous green-blue-grey eye peeked in, and Clint smiled disarmingly. 

"Hey sweetheart," he said soothingly. Emma's fingers splayed over the edge of the door, and the crack between the door and the frame became wider. In the soft glow from the nightstand lamp, Emma's hair looked like liquid copper, where it was pulled back into an intricate braid.

"Hi," she said quietly. It was way past her bedtime, really, and her sleep shirt was wrinkled, as if she'd tossed and turned in her bed, trying to get to sleep. "Can... Can I sleep in here with you guys?" Her voice sounded a little choked as she looked at them with beady eyes and a lip that almost looked like it was trembling.

Natasha recognized that look, didn't even need to look at Clint for confirmation. 

"Of course, возлюбленный," she murmured, and Emma didn't hesitate for a second, as if the invitation would be withdrawn if she stopped to breathe, and she crawled up the bed in a moment. Clint and Natasha shifted to give her some room, and she crawled into the pocket of warmth between them.

Clint dropped a kiss on her head, and Natasha began tracing patterns down her arms. 

"Hearing aids," Natasha remarked as Clint stretched to turn the light off. The three lay in silence and darkness for a while, until Emma let out a little sniffle.

"Are you still mad at me?" she asked, her voice small and wet. Natasha was startled by the sudden change in mood, and since it was too dark for Clint to read lips and he had no hearing aids, she was on her own in the parenting game. She wrapped her arm more around Emma in a comforting squeeze.

"We're not mad," Natasha sighed into her hair as Clint stroked Emma's neck. "We're more... Disappointed."

"Oh god, that's even worse," Emma groaned as she buried her face in Clint's chest. 

"You see where we're coming from, though, don't you?" Natasha asked. Emma's nod was reluctant, but there. "We're just worried about you, возлюбленный. We don't want you to become another casualty. We've got enough blood in our lives to paint the whole tower red. We don't want you to be a part of that, okay?"

"Okay," Emma said quietly. "Alright. I get it." Natasha expelled a breath of relief, and closed her eyes. 

"Can we sleep now that that's settled?" she asked. Emma giggled a little, a sweet sound, and nodded, burrowing further into their embrace. 

"Yeah," she sighed happily.

\---


	5. Unexpected Guests And Shared Sadness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's, um. It's been a while. I feel the shame. School has just been trying!!! To kill!! Me!! Also the muses are not happy with me for unknown reasons. But I'm trying! I've been working on the next segment and that thing about a time jump? I'm never sure when that's gonna happen. That's all about when you guys want and demand it. I have a bunch of things loaded up, whether it may be more Bucky/Darcy, more Emian, more Clintasha, more Stony, etc.   
> So, anyway. Thanks for being patient.  
> Enjoy! <3

 

Everyone joined in on watching cartoons Sunday morning, smushed together in the armchairs and the loveseats and the big couch. Emma, Bruce, and Wanda ended up on the floor in the end, the two of them stuffed in big sweaters and soft pants, while Emma wore shorts and t-shirt. They both looked exhausted, Wanda's face plauged with frown lines as she scrolled the playlist on her Starktab with an earphone in her mouth, her hoodie up over her head.

Bruce was texting someone, smiling once in a while, and Darcy and Jane kept shooting him sad looks, like they knew just what he was doing and how sad it was.

Just when there was a commercial break, the soft chatting was interrupted.

"Sir," came Jarvis' voice. "There's a matter that needs to be brought to your attention."

"And what's that?" Tony asked as he handed the wriggling Peter off to his other dad and stood up.

"There's an issue down in the lobby..." Jarvis began, and Tony walked into the kitchen before anyone could hear another word.

There were a few moments of silence where everyone pretended that they weren't trying to eavesdrop. Except for Wanda, who wasn't curious enough to try. She turned her music up instead, until Natasha elbowed Clint and made a sign with her hands. Clint peeked over at Wanda's volume controls, and frowned as he tapped her shoulder. Just when he was about to tell her to lower the volume, there was a groan from the kitchen. 

"Bruce!" came Tony's sharp voice, and Bruce looked up from his phone, his big eyes and glasses making him look like an owl. His shoulders came up around his ears as he stared at Tony in the doorway. "You invited her to the tower!"

"Who?" Bruce asked, further instating the owl-likeness.

"Dr. Ross!"

"Oh Bruce," Darcy said, and Bruce shot up from the floor.

"Betty's here?!" he exclaimed, his face turning a little green. Immediately Bucky had an arm around Emma's waist and was dragging her behind the couch, away from Bruce. "That's- That's impossible. She's in San Francisco for a conference."

He began regulating his breathing, gripping the sofa's armrest. Everyone had created a little perimeter around him, trying to minimize the potential damage, except for Wanda. She was still bopping her head to her own music, sitting next to his feet on the floor, completely unconcerned.

"Nope. In the lobby. Right now," Tony said, flippant about the green, but not about Bruce inviting a woman to the tower. "Why is she here? Should we let her in? I don't know about your sororid past with her, but if Lewis is actually pitying you, it's definitely sororid." 

"It's not like that!" Bruce said defiantly. "I have no idea what she's doing here."

"She claims it is to 'check up on Bruce'," Jarvis said from the ceiling. 

"I didn't tell her to do that!" he urged. "She's here by her own volition. She's a free woman!"

Darcy sighed from where Bucky had wrapped his arm around her and discreetly dragged her behind the couch as well. 

"You need to let her up, Tony," she said firmly.

"What? What happened to 'oh Bruce'? I thought we were still doing that," he frowned, and put his hands on his hips. Darcy carded her hair through Emma's red curls on the other side of Bucky's torso, and quirked her lips. 

"Like he said, Betty's a free woman. They both know very well how this will go when it inevitably crashes and burns. Again."

"Ouch," Clint said with his eyebrows raised, still crouched a little so that Natasha could use his thigh as a springboard and get up to the vent if needed. No matter how much he liked Bruce, he still hadn't really forgotten about all of those times the Hulk seemed to target Natasha for any residual anger left over after a fight. 

"It's the cold, hard truth, Barton," Darcy shrugged. 

"But when they break up, we'll have to deal with a sad Bruce. And a sad Hulk!" Tony protested. "You know how the big guy gets when Bruce is sad."

"The mopiest wrecking-crew to ever live?" Bucky questioned.

"Exactly!"

"Guys! We're not dating!" Bruce exclaimed. 

"Dr. Ross is on her way up," Jarvis alerted them. 

"Oh, mom and dad need to meet the new girlfriend," Tony said pointedly when Bruce scrambled to get to the elevator. The entire Avengers family moved to follow. Wanda gave them all weird looks, but Pietro just looked like he was enjoying the drama.

"Oh god," Bruce said as he looked out over the crowd standing behind him, all in various states of undress and with Thor still chewing a poptart. "Oh no. Why is this the event of the year?"

"You? With a girlfriend? Someone who actually used to date you? At the tower? How is that _not_ the event of the year?" Clint asked incredulously, and Bruce pressed his glasses up on his nose and swallowed nervously. 

The elevatorbell dinged, and he whipped around as everyone watched the doors open intently.

A woman stood in the elevator, with a checkered scarf wrapped around her neck. Her stylish grey coat was down to her thighs, and she had black, knee-high boots on. Underneath the coat, she was wearing a black skirt, and her blouse was pink and tucked into the hem of it. Her hair was long and brown, and her eyes a sky blue that suited her tan skin. She smiled as soon as she caught sight of Bruce, and stepped out of the elevator. 

"Bruce," she said softly, and everyone seemed to hold their breath, the only thing breaking the silence being Pietro quietly munching on some popcorn, eyes wide.

"Betty," Bruce exhaled, and she reached out to straighten his hoodie gently, giving him a fond look. "It's been a while. The, uh, the face to face part, anyway."

"Yeah, I was... Sort of in the area, thought I'd drop by," she said quietly. Bruce was seemingly mesmerized by the way she tossed her straight hair over her shoulder. "You seemed a little out of it on the phone."

"Sorry, there was an invasion of shadows yesterday, had to let the big guy out," Bruce said, wetted his lips nervously as she took a step back, unbuttoned her coat a snap and unwound the scarf.

"Ah. The famous post-Hulk-out tiredness. Figures." Bruce smiled a little, a kind of smile nobody had ever really seen cross his face before. Except maybe Betty.

"You didn't hear about the invasion?"

"Honestly, it's so commonplace nowadays that it barely gets on the news anymore," Betty huffed. Bruce was just about to reply to that, when Jane emerged from the crowd of bodies to smile brightly at the newcomer.

"Betty!" she exclaimed, and Betty turned surprised eyes on Jane.

"Jane!" she exclaimed back, and the two shared a companionable hug. "I had no clue you were hanging around here! I just finished reading your article about the Bifrost. Interesting, and turning magic into science. It made my old stuffy colleagues want to eat their hats. Good going." Jane laughed a little.

"I've gotten my grants transferred here since the cause for all of the Asgardian magic tends to hang around here," she said, waving towards Thor. He grinned and reached a hand out to Betty. 

"Doctor Ross!" he boomed, and Betty blinked a little as they shook hands. His hand dwarfed hers, and her eyes remained a little wide as he pulled back. "My Jane has told me of your most fortunate dwelving into biology!"

"Uh, great," she said, smiling at him as Jane was swept up into his arms and kissed on the cheek. Jane smiled and patted his bearded cheek back just as Darcy slipped away from Bucky. 

"Hiya Dr. Ross," she said teasingly.

"Oh god, Darcy, way to make me feel old," Betty laughed, and Emma looked over at Bruce, who looked a little bit starstruck. "How come my title makes me seem old whenever you say it?"

"It's a trick I've been taught. Watch this. Hello Dr. Banner," Darcy said, smiling pleasantly at Bruce and reaching a hand out. 

"Wow. You weren't kidding," Bruce said, giving her a concerned look. "I suddenly feel like I need a cane and a wheezing cough." That made Betty giggle, and Tony's eyebrows flew up on his forehead. 

"The great Dr. Ross. I've read some of your papers. Gotta admit, I'm a fan," he said, stepping forward with a press grin on his face. 

"I get the feeling I'm going to be shaking hands with the lot of you," she smiled as they actually shook hands. 

"No, no, no need. That's Black Widow, Hawkeye, their kid Emma-"

"Hi," Emma said with a wave from Bucky's arms, her tip toes swinging half a foot off the ground.

"-the guy who's holding her is the Winter Soldier, then that's Wanda and Pietro and we haven't really figured out if they're really gonna be on the team yet, so until then, they're just Wanda and Pietro, and then there's Steve, Captain America, hi Steve, and our adorable baby boy Peter. Wanna say hi, Pete?"

"Hi," Peter said shyly, and then buried his squishy little face in Steve's neck, making both of his parents smile lovingly.

"Right, so handshaking is unnecessary." Betty laughed. 

"This is a rag-tag team of people if I've ever seen one," she said, and Bruce blushed. Actually _blushed_. Everyone was surprised at that, except for, yet again, Betty.

"We make it look hot," Clint smirked, and Emma made gunshot noises and fingerguns to accompany it. 

"Sure do," Tony agreed. 

"Let's go down to my lab," Bruce said, looking mildly embarrassed as he more or less herded Betty back into the elevator. "Wouldn't want to bother everyone else."

"You're not a bother at all," Steve said, and Wanda smacked her brother over the back of the head to stop him from snickering.

"No, really," Bruce said, pressing the 'close doors' button multiple times until the doors began actually closing, and then they were gone.

Everyone stood in silence for a while, and then Bucky set Emma back down on her feet again. 

"Huh," she said. "That was Betty? She seemed cool. Why don't you like her?"

"Oh, I love Betty," Jane said happily from Thor's huge arms. "She and Bruce just keep falling in love over and over again and it's like watching a train wreck happen each time."

"How do you know this? I didn't even know she existed until I read all of her papers and then her books yesterday," Tony said incredulously.

"Bruce is sweet when he's drunk," Darcy said with a smile.

"You got him drunk? _How_?"

"I'll give you a hint: Asgardian booze. That stuff is the stuff of gods. Literally!" Darcy sighed happily.

"Think you can- Argh," Tony grumbled, cutting himself off at Steve's look. "I'm a recovering alcoholic, keep that delicious booze away from me."

"You betcha," Darcy smiled. 

"Not from me," Bucky said, and Darcy raised her eyebrows at him, looking a little impressed. 

"No? Wanna go try some right now?"

"It's not even noon," Steve remarked with a quirked eyebrow. 

"So? It's not depressing if you do it together," Darcy said, wiggling her eyebrows at Bucky. She reached out a hand and he took it, letting himself get dragged off. 

"Stay safe!" Emma called after them as she climbed on top of the fridge to get to where Victoria was sleeping, meowing happily when Emma stroked her soft fur.

Steve shook his head disapprovingly, but he didn't have his stern face on, so Emma assumed he was happy for Bucky and Darcy. Then Tony cast an eye at the clock. 

"Whoops, we have a morning date with Pepper and Happy," he exclaimed, clapping his hands together.

"Since when?" Steve asked incredulously.

"Since yesterday."

"I think Pepper wants to rest."

"Happy called me earlier saying that Peter has to meet his new cousin, and that makes sense, y'know? Since he was asleep last time. Don't you wanna meet your cousin, Pete?"

"Cousin?" Peter frowned. Then he pointed to Emma. "'Ma cousin"

"Yeah, Petey," Emma said, nodding. "Ma cousin. I'm your cousin. But you got a new cousin yesterday! A tiny, new cousin."

"New cousin?" he gasped, and then flailed, shooting a web in Tony's face. " Mama, new cousin!"

"Yeah. Wanna visit?" Tony grinned, wiping the web off with a practiced movement before he stole Peter out of Steve's hands and took off for the elevator. 

"Yeah!" the toddler exclaimed, and Steve rolled his eyes lovingly as he jogged to catch up with them.

"It would be idiotic of me to ask if you two have any plans today, wouldn't it?" Clint asked with a twitch of the lips. Wanda pulled her earbud out and sighed. 

"Yes. Unless..." she trailed off. 

"Yes, Wanda?" Clint asked patiently. 

"I could contact this... Xavier you all talk about?" she asked lightly. 

"Honestly, you could probably just reach out with that." He tapped his pointer finger on Wanda's exposed forehead. Her eyes flashed scarlet in shock, as if he'd actually managed to touch her powers with just his fingers, which was ridiculous.

"He's a telepath," Natasha shot in at Pietro's weird look. 

"Where?" Wanda asked, looking excited for the first time in ever. Even Pietro seemed a little shocked to see the expression on his sister's familiar features..

"He's got a school somewhere secret and safe," Clint said calmly and professionally. Wanda gave him a puzzled look, and then glanced at Natasha, who gave her a small quirk of lips as Wanda's eyes flashed scarlet for a second.

"Oh," Wanda said, seemingly stunned. "Xavier's school for gifted youngsters. Mutants. Like us."

"How many?" Pietro asked. 

"A couple," Wanda said, looking dazed when they met eyes.

"Did you just mind-slip Wanda sensetive information?" Clint asked incredulously. 

"I wanted to see if it'd work," Natasha shrugged as she put the hot water on for tea. "And better she knows the surface thoughts than the mess underneath."

"So, if Fury asks, Wanda knew because she's a telepath and can snatch thoughts from the air?" Clint clarified, and Natasha nodded. "Do you think we can say that? Don't they know better?"

"Tony doesn't trust Shield, so they don't have access to any testing that's happened since they got here. They don't know better," Emma reminded them. "You can't access anything he's working on without getting stuck in some serious trouble. Right Jarvis?"

"The security protocols are sufficient, should Shield try to integrate themselves into the system again," Jarvis supplied. "Sir has laid out extensive plans to avoid 'getting Shield's fingers shoved into his machinery'."

"That ending could've been much less PG, you do not realize how happy I am for Peter's existence right now," Clint smiled at Jarvis.

"What's the R rated version?" Emma asked from the refridgeratior, smiling down at her dad as she gave her a look.

"That, my little lady, you are much to young to know," Clint said mock-sternly, and Emma giggled a little. 

"You do realize I'm very mature for my age?" Emma declared. "Dr. Kyle says so. I have a high IQ."

"High IQ and matureness are not synonyms, sweetie. Tony's a great example of that." Emma considered that, and then frowned petulantly. 

"I'm _mature_ ," she emphasised, cuddling up to her kitten in her Wonder Woman sleep shirt with her Asgardian-Warrior-Princess braids still mussed from her sleep.

"No," Pietro declared. 

"A little," Wanda agreed thoughtfully, a sad look on her face. "In the worst ways."

The mood immediately dropped just a little, became a little more forced, until Wanda plugged her earbuds back in, and retreated to the living room.

Pietro grabbed a box of cereal from the cabinet next to the coffee machine, and hopped up on the counter. Emma reached a hand down from her perch on the fridge, and he poured a few flakes of Cookie Crunch into her palm.

Just as Clint was about to comment on that, his phone began flashing and vibrating, and he picked it up, checking the text. 

"We need to get to Shield," he sighed. Natasha nodded wordlessly, and took the cup of tea she'd been preparing, and took it into the living room. "Keep track of the little monster for me, yeah?"

"Sure," Emma and Pietro said in unison, and then gave each other looks of confusion. 

"I'm watching _you_ , you're not watching _me_ ," Emma said firmly.

"Why? You're tiny," Pietro shot back. 

"But I've lived here longer."

"I'm still older."

"So? Dude. Not a valid measurement of authority. I know this place better."

"Just because you like vents, does not mean you know it better!" 

"Both of you works," Clint grinned, hands in the air as Natasha came back into the kitchen, waving him towards the elevator. "You're both my little monsters, okay? Watch each other for me. Don't let either one of you break anything, or choke, or get killed. Sound good?"

Emma grumbled, but nodded, and Pietro huffed, but gave Emma another handfull of Cookie Crunch when beckoned, and if he was still sharing his food, that meant he wasn't too upset about it. Probably putting on a show, the drama queen. 

"Great! See you later," he said, shaking his head in disbelief that this was his damn life. "Text us when it's dinnertime."

"Will do," Emma called from the fridge as they disappeared. The moment the doors were closed, Emma petted Victoria and smiled down on Pietro in her best movie-villain way. "So... Wanna play that game Tony designed for your reflexes?"

"Obviously," Pietro said, and Emma was grabbed off of the fridge in a blur of wind and noise, and then she was sitting in the couch, right next to Pietro. She let out a burst of a laugh as air came back to her lungs, and Pietro grinned manically at her as he tossed her the controller.

"Game on," she snickered. 

\---

It took a couple of hours before Pietro got bored, and decided to run on the treadmill for a while, and Emma skimmed some of her notes for her upcoming French test thoughtfully, saying all of the phrases she knew out loud as she did.

She didn't even notice Bucky until he was swinging himself over the couch single-handedly, and sitting down next to her. 

"Bonjour," Emma mumbled distractedly. 

"I hear you're trying to get a sibling," Bucky said, putting his finger underneath her chin and making her tear her gaze away. She blinked a couple of times, and then she slipped her notes onto the coffee table, giving him her full attention. 

"Did you get drunk?" Emma asked lightly. 

"I sure did," Bucky replied, honest and blunt as always with her. "For a couple of hours. My fucked up version of Steve's serum really does have it's downsides." 

"Where's Darcy?"

"Sleeping it off." He paused, and then smiled fondly. Emma suspected he was at least still a little tipsy, if the way he sank back into the couch was any indication. "Damn, but can that gal hold her liquor." Emma snorted. 

"That's something you admire in a woman?"

"Not sure."

"Right."

"Don't change the subject. Why do you insist on subtly manipulating your parents into getting you things? Mutants, cats, siblings?" 

"Hey, mom was in on the cat, and the mutants weren't by _my_ manipulating, that was a subtle Fury switcheroo all the way."

"Now that you mention it," Bucky said thoughtfully. "That's probably the case. He does like to play spy."

"He's the director of a spy organization. I'm pretty sure the reason they picked him to lead said spy organization was due to how good he was at playing spy."

"You're doing it again," he accused. 

"Well, you're enabling me." Bucky just stared at her this time, eyebrows the tiniest smidge raised. Emma sighed wistfully, and looked up at the ceiling. "C'mon Buck. Didn't you have siblings? Back in the day? Sisters who fawned over you and gave you shit for doing bad things? Brothers that played catch with you and let you ride on their shoulders?" 

Bucky considered that, and Wanda let him struggle for a couple of seconds from the other side of the room, where she'd made a little pile of pillows and was laying down. Then she sighed, sat up, and pulled her earbuds out. 

"Here, let me," she said, and sat down next to them, swooping her hand through the air and flicking a red swirl of energy right into Bucky's face. He blinked, and for a moment his eyes flashed scarlet along with Wanda's as her lips twisted into a frown of concentration. 

"I had a sister," Bucky said slowly, and a look of astonishment took over his face. Wanda smiled a little smugly and began to pull her hand away when he grabbed it, held it still. The look on his face shifted from astonishment to a choked combination of mild fear and pleading, and he said "don't stop."

Wanda gave him a sad smile, and clenched her hand. The light flickered, and Bucky's face turned grim. 

"Your mind is not stable, James," Wanda told him, surprisingly gentle. "Is mine field. Touch one wrong thing and you snap. I prefer you speaking and walking to numb and drooling."

"But you could do that again?" he pressed.

"What happened?" Emma asked, wide-eyed. Bucky turned to her with barely concealed enthusiasm. 

"I saw her. Rebecca," he said, and the restless twitch of his lips made Emma grin at him brightly. 

"Your sister is named Rebecca?" she asked breathlessly, and Bucky nodded. Wanda watched, bemused, as Bucky dragged Emma into his side and she just went with it, as if the way to celebrate his breakthrough was through touching. "Wow. Did you do the mind-look thing again?"

"No," Wanda replied. "Something like it."

"Could you do it to me?" Emma asked excitedly, practically crawling up into Bucky's lap to get closer to Wanda. 

Wanda actually recoiled a little, and Emma's smile dimmed. 

"I could," she said reluctantly. "But your mind is... Not the same messy."

"Different kind of messy than Bucky? Well, that makes sense, I guess," she said, chuckling a little sheepishly. Wanda made a noise of frustration and said something in Sokovian. Bucky hummed, as if he got it.

"Lost in translation," he said, his metal hand supporting Emma's back, grounding her. "More, like, hormonal teenager with mental health issues messy than brainwashed veteran with serious PTSD issues messy. Different kind of messy."

"So, a brainwashed veteran with serious PTSD issues messy is easy to sort through in comparison to a hormonal teenager?"

"Yes," Wanda said. "They box things up, with..." She fumbled for a word, and said it in Sokovian to Bucky with a frustrated look on her face.

"Labels," Bucky clarified. 

"Exactly. Brainwashed veteran boxes up with labels, very messy, but a sorted messy. Hormonal teenager has everything tossed out of boxes, no labels... It would be hard. Your mind has traps I don't want to get stuck in."

"And Bucky's doesn't?" Wanda actually smiled at that, a weird, secret kind of smile. 

"You've tripped most of them. And walked away unharmed."

"Huh," Emma and Bucky breathed together. She grinned at him, and then kissed his cheek lovingly. 

"This is better than siblings," Bucky said slowly. "Me and you? Better than that."

"I know," Emma said reassuringly, nodding as she carded a hand through his hair.

"And Wanda and Pietro? They're your siblings now. You fight with them like siblings, petty squabbles and bullshit things, and you still kind of love them. That's sibling love," he remarked. 

"It is? Are you sure?"

"Which one here has a sibling, again?"

"Wanda," Emma remarked, and Wanda stood up from the couch, shrugging.

"James is right," she said silently. "You fight and you squabble and you still love them."

"Huh. Does that make all of my friends siblings too?"

"No," Bucky said. "That's your friends. You don't live with them. You don't have to fight them for food and love and affection."

"Okay, that can't be healthy. Wanda?" Emma inquired. Wanda turned around to look at her, and raised an eyebrow. 

"When we were seventeen, I was forcing Pietro into staying still with my powers so we wouldn't be caught fleeing from father's house. Sibling love is seldom healthy. Love the love you get," she said, and then floated, actually floated, back into her little pile of pillows, plugging her earbuds back in.

"You're all so sad," Emma sighed. "Why are we all so sad?"

Bucky shrugged. 

"We work best that way. Deal with your own sadness before you go rooting in everyone else's, doll," he said, sweeping a copper lock from his shoulder back onto hers.

"And yours. Your sadness is my sadness," Emma said firmly. Bucky actually cracked a small smile at her. 

"And my sadness," he agreed quietly.

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I have not seen The Incredible Hulk, so my Betty is just... A jumble of comics canon and maybe some movie? I just wanted Betty. That is all. I'm sorry if you feel she's ooc.


	6. Out Of It And Sunshine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *hides face in shame* oh my god oh my god I'm sorry it's been so looooong! I've had no inspiration and no drive and school has been eating me alive, so I've had to focus on other things, but here it is!!  
> The next part might come up later this week, we'll see, but it's definitely in the writing process now!  
> Enjoy!! <3<3

 

After watching the ending of 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' for the third time, Bucky got twitchy, and went down to have a beat-down with some specifically enforced punching bags. Wanda finally gave up on trying to find Xavier with her mind, and left the living room to track down a reliable phone number instead. 

Victoria remained companionable when Emma played with her, tossing a small, knitted mouse with a little bell on the nose around. When Victoria got bored with her, she watched some Pink Panther lying upside down on the couch, and in French, hoping to understand something, at the very least. 

She was so preoccupied with being bored out of her mind that she didn't notice the elevator opening, and voices arguing until Pietro came into the room with a burst of wind, the frown evident in his voice when he spoke. 

"You have visitor," he stated, and Emma righted herself to peer curiously over the couch at whoever it was, only to find Damian standing there, worn and tired, and the most gorgeous thing she'd seen in weeks. Three and a half weeks, to be more precise.

"Oh my god!" she exclaimed, and sprang to her feet, practically leaping over the back of the couch towards him with her arms outstretched and ready to hug. There was a resounding grunt as she nearly tackled him into a wall, and Damian groaned quietly. 

"Ribs-" he gasped out, and she hissed and released him. 

"Oh, fuck, sorry, sorry," she exclaimed, putting her hands up in the air even though all she wanted to do was grab him and pin him to the floor and not let him leave. "Hi?"

"Hi," he replied, his breathing still a little strained as he leaned against the wall. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, bracing himself. "I should've known you'd attack me." 

"If only to shower you with love, yeah," Emma said, crossing her arms over her chest. "In case you haven't been introduced, Pietro, this is Damian. Damian, this is Pietro, a mutant who runs really fast, and does not have enough patience to fill a dixie cup."

"Hey," Pietro pouted, sounding offended. 

"Counter my argument, babe," Emma challenged. 

"Still watching Hawaii Five-Oh, I hear," Damian said as he stood up straight again, and how is it possible for him to be taller? He couldn't have grown that much in three weeks. That's physically impossible. Has she been forgetting what he looks like?

Panicked, Emma stared at his face for a moment, before registering his implication.

"What?"

"You're calling him 'babe'," Damian pointed out, and did he sound sullen? Like, legit pouty? She's so in love with this dork. The thought made her grin, and she carefully slid an arm around his waist, avoiding any ribs in the vicinity. 

"You're my only real babe, you know that, beloved," she told him soothingly, and Damian's eyes flickered toward Pietro for a nervous second, like he expected Pietro to mock them. Instead, Pietro just stood there, his foot tapping on the floor and attracting Victoria's attention. 

"I thought he'd be scary," Pietro interjected. "James calls him 'vicious twig'." Emma laughed. 

"Scary? Damian? Nah," she said, and Damian pulled away from her to glare incredulously. "Dude. I don't think you're scary. If I thought you were scary, one of us would be dead by now."

"You make our relationship sound so unhealthy," Damian complained. 

"Neither of us are very healthy, beloved," Emma pointed out, and Pietro made a noise, and disappeared in a gust of wind, leaving a startled Victoria behind in his wake. Damian blinked at the empty space he'd just occupied. "Did I mention he moves really really fast?"

"Yes."

"Then you should've seen that one coming. Wow, you're really out of it, aren't you? Gimme your hand." Dutifully, Damian presented her with his hand, and she ran her thumb over his knuckles, squeezed his long fingers in hers. "You okay?"

"No," Damian admitted silently, and Emma smiled at him sweetly, running the tip of her finger over his sharp cheekbone before she bent down to pick up Victoria. 

"Let's fix that. C'mon."

\---

Damian stared at Victoria, and the kitten meowed at him loudly, running around in circles around him on the floor. Victoria was anything but shy, energetic and ready to play whenever. Emma smiled as Damian scoffed at Victoria's antics, and reached a hand out to pet the little cat, who pounced on his leg. 

"Victoria," Emma admonished sharply as tiny claws dug into Damian's thigh, but Damian only huffed amusedly. Victoria gave Emma an innocent "who, me?" look that was adorable, and Emma grabbed the kitten from his lap. "Sorry about that. She's new at this whole 'being nice' thing." 

"I've recieved far worse injuries," Damian said casually from the floor as Emma snuggled up to Victoria. She placed a besocked foot square in the middle of Damian's stomach and worried her lip. 

"Yeah, that worries me," she said as Victoria meowed to be let down. "She'll warm up to you."

"I have my own cat," Damian said indifferently as he watched Victoria strut out the door to Emma's room, that was to be strictly open if Damian was over. Emma thought that was a silly rule, but Clint was very intent on keeping that one rule. Natasha had rolled her eyes at Clint's flailing as he'd announced the rule, but had ultimately agreed. 

"Oh yeah. Alfred, right?" Emma said distractedly as Damian grabbed her foot and pulled on it. 

"Yes." 

"Man, you have a lot of pets."

"Titus and Alfred don't count as 'a lot'."

"Don't you have, like, a cow? I'm sure Tim told me you had a cow," she said, tilting her head to the side. Damian considered that. 

"Batcow is not a pet," he retorted, and Emma snorted. 

"You're not serious." The glare she recieved in return made her laugh so hard her stomach hurt. "Oh my god, _Batcow_. Someone save me," she cackled as she threw herself back on the bed, writhing with laughter. Damian groaned and smacked her leg to shut her up as she rolled over, nearly falling off her bed. 

"I don't need to defend Batcow from you," he said, and Emma wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes, flipping her hair up so that she could look him in the eye and grin. 

"How old were you when you got Batcow?" she asked, only giggling at the name.

"Ten," he replied. "Get down here."

"You need a good cuddle?" Damian frowned at her, a sudden blush painting his cheekbones, and Emma gasped and nearly fell off the bed again. 

"No," he scoffed, and she beamed at him. 

"Are you _blushing_? Damian Wayne, you get over here," she said, rolling onto the floor as he rolled away, obviously not taking into account his bruised ribs. They slowed him down just enough for Emma to be able to grab his thigh and stop him from crawling away any further without hurting her.

"I am not _blushing_ ," he snapped as she rolled him over on his back with her considerable strength and pinned his arms over his head. 

"You _are_!" she squealed. "That's so sweet of you. Cuddles don't warrant blushes. Cuddles are barely even considered PG."

"Get off," he snarled, not meeting her eyes, and Emma let go of his hands. 

"I'm sorry for making it sound like I was mocking your blush. It's just really cute. I like your face when you blush. I like your face just in general, but seeing you blush is a new one, and I wanna enjoy it," she told him, cupping his face in her hands and turning it to look back up at her. "Okay?"

Damian didn't say anything, but was biting the inside of his cheek, she could tell. 

"Jarvis? Shut down all recording and audio in this room," Emma said softly. 

"Yes Miss Emma," Jarvis agreed, and there was a tiny click from somewhere. She smiled down at Damian's face, cradled in her hands. It'd been so long since she'd taken a life with her hands cradling a person's face, and as soon as she'd thought that, Emma's hands recoiled like Damian's jaw was on fire.

They sat like that, Emma straddling his waist, Damian with his arms up, for what felt like hours, when it only could've been seconds, max a couple of minutes, just staring. 

"Awkward," Emma sing-songed suddenly, and Damian's intense look turned exasperated, and he rolled his eyes, pointedly looking away from her.

"Sometimes you make me wish I had other friends," he stated, and Emma laughed as he slid his leg up so that she could use his knee as a backrest. 

"You're doing that thing again, where you lie to distance yourself and I see through you and think it's cute that you at least try to lie when I'm around." She leaned forward and stared him straight in that eye. "Say that again, to my face."

Damian glared, and then gave her a soft, quick kiss, practically surrendering without a fight. Emma smirked smugly as she leaned back on his legs again. 

"So, how was your 'ski-trip'?" she asked, making the appropriate bunny ears, and Damian looked thoughtful, furrowing his eyebrows a little in thought, forming a cute wrinkle on his forehead that she noticed looked a lot like the one his dad had, right in that area. Creepy.

"Efficient," he replied, nodding to himself. "Effective."

"Can you give me any more details than 'ski-trip' without your dad wigging out?"

"'Wigging out'?" Damian repeated questioningly. 

"I've been watching Gilmore Girls, don't judge my nineties expressions," Emma said, smacking his leg distantly. 

"How much free time do you _have_?" 

"Hey, not that much! More than you, I bet, but not _that_ much," she smiled. "Answer me." He grimaced, wrinkling his nose in a cute way, and _wow_ , is that why couples don't wanna be separated for a long time? Because they'll get gross and lovey-dovey when they get to hang out again? Love is weird.

"I can't tell you a lot, but I can tell you one thing. My mother is not pleased," he sighed.  
"Oh. Oh _dude._ You can't just leave me hanging like that!" Emma groaned. "You know how I feel about your mom!"

"She's pissed. Does that make you happy?"

"Does it make me a bad person if I say yes?"

"She's a bad person too, so not really," Damian shrugged. 

"Then yes, it makes me very happy," Emma declared, patting his cheeks lovingly. Damian snorted in amusment, and Emma ached a little with how much she'd missed that little snort. She beamed at him, and managed to coax a matching smile out of him, his tired eyes turning a little brighter. "Hey, wanna go watch some good old Supernatural on the couch?"

"Will there be... Cuddles?" Damian asked suspiciously, and Emma bit her laugh back. 

"Possibly. If you're nice about it." Damian scoffed, but he pushed a hand against her thigh, a silent get-off motion, and she gracefully put her hands beside his head and curled into a handstand over him, standing up on the other side. "Comin'?" she asked sweetly, looking back down at Damian's soft expression. 

"Yeah," he sighed, rolling onto his stomach and slowly getting up. 

They ended up on the couch, finally, with Damian's head on her stomach as he pretended he wasn't falling asleep from her gentle twirling of his hair. His left arm was shoved between the couch cushions and Emma's hip, fiddling distantly with the fabric of her t-shirt, and his right arm nearly touching the floor, slung over her hip like it was meant to be there. 

It was currently on Emma's top ten list of good goddamn snuggles, that's what it was, and his comments about inaccuracies and how they couldn't possibly have wifi out in a random cabin were mumbled into her skin like he really wanted to stay awake for her but really couldn't. 

That was fine. Emma was fine with that. She just ran her hand through Damian's hair, tracing a thumb over his cheekbone and the tip of his nose and the soft skin right behind his ear. She never wanted to move again, which was honestly not something she'd ever thought she'd be thinking, like, ever. 

"Dean's dead," Damian muttered into her stomach, snapping her out of her thoughts. 

"What? Again?" she asked incredulously, looking over at the screen.

"You don't lose that amount of blood and live," he sighed, unconsciously nuzzling her when she rubbed his scalp distantly. Emma considered that. 

"I've lost that amount of blood and I've lived," she pointed out. 

"You cheat," Damian grumbled. Emma laughed. 

"Yes, curse me for getting injected with unstable serums that make me blow things up and heal really quickly." 

"It wasn't... Without it you'd be dead," he said, turning his head up to look at her. She shrugged. 

"A couple of times over, probably, yeah. So?" Damian stared at her for a while. 

"When you were... Kidnapped, I didn't think they'd hurt you that badly." Emma shruged, feigning indifference. 

"Ralph knows my limits better than I do," she said, swallowing the lump in her throat. "I was too useful to kill. His little miracle baby."

"What a twist of fate. I'm a miracle baby too," Damian said thoughtfully. 

"Oh yeah?"

"My mother supposedly drugged father to concieve me, but she couldn't possibly be out of commission long enough to have a child, so I was put into an artificial birth chamber until I was old enough to be born," he said, still looking thoughtful, as though this was something normal, like he was cool with it. 

"Do you want me to, like, kick your mom's ass or something? Is that what you want? Because you just ask me, and I'll break every single bone she has in her body," Emma said fiercely, the hand in Damian's hair tugging his head back a little to make him look her in the eye. 

"I don't require your protection from my mother," Damian said dismissively. "But the concern is noted. I would appreciate it if you let her live, really."

"Because you still love her, even though she's a bad person?" Emma sighed, giving him a knowing look. Immediately Damian looked towards the TV again, anywhere but her eyes.

"No."

"Oh, shut up, it's your mom. Of course you do. And you love your dad too, and your siblings, and your friends, and your life, and you love Titus, and you love your butler and you love all of your dad's cool friends, and you love your room and your swords, and you love me," she said, pushing his head back down on her stomach. 

"No I don't," Damian protested half-heartedly, and Emma shushed him. 

"Stop being contradicting and relish in loving things," she huffed, and Damian muffled his laugh into her skin, lovely little vibrations and shaking shoulders that made her feel like the sun was shining in her face and like this boy of the night could be dragged out into the sun's warming rays with her.

\---

Damian stayed for dinner with the family, and they had to find random chairs from around the tower and squeeze tight to make sure everyone had some legspace, table space, and a place to put their ass, but they made it work. 

Betty was sitting between Bruce and Jane, chatting animatedly and making Bruce smile more during one meal than he'd smiled during the past month. She made Thor laugh uproariously and charmed Natasha into a smile with her timid ways and gentle laughter. 

Right in the middle of dinner, Betty smacked a hand to her forehead. 

"Right! I got you something," she told Bruce, who gave her an interested look. 

"What? Why? Y-you didn't have to," he began, but he was obviously curious, and Betty rooted around in the pocket of her jacket that was slung over the back of her chair until her hand emerged, victorious, and holding a small wrist watch. 

"A heart monitor," she said, a triumphant smile on her face. "Just in case people in your proximity aren't the greatest at reading your body language."

"That's brilliant," Steve said, eyes wide. Betty tossed him a look over her shoulder as she clipped it on Bruce's arm. 

"You hadn't thought about it?" she asked sweetly, turning to look at Tony. "Not even the great Tony Stark?" Bruce hid his grin at that, and Tony looked affronted. 

"Obviously! It'll just break when he goes green!" he said triumphantly. Betty smiled at him. 

"Better stock up on them then. Or maybe just make this one more durable and flexible? Maybe add a GPS so you can find him if he jumps off after a fight? The Hulk is a little unpredictable that way," she told him. 

"I know that!" Tony said, his voice turning a little shrill. "I've been fighting with him for three years!"

"Tony," Steve said, putting a hand on Tony's lower back, and Tony inhaled through his nose so visibly that Emma could see his nostrils flaring. She thought he looked hilarous, like a cartoon character with steam coming out of his ears. 

Damian was chewing thoughtfully on his vegan-burger next to her, her crazy family was talking loudly to be heard over each other, and she had never felt better in her life.

She looked over at Bucky just in time to see him give Darcy's cheek a kiss, and when their eyes met, Bucky cocked an eyebrow at her. Emma grabbed her glass and stood up, walking over to the fridge. Bucky was after her in a second, opening the fridge door for her, which was totally unnecessary, but also kind of cute in it's weird, Bucky kind of way. 

"What's up?" he asked her warily, eyes a little narrowed in concern. 

"Doesn't everything feel super amazing right now?" she asked him. Bucky sighed as she pulled the Mt. Dew bottle out of the fridge. 

"It does, doll," he agreed, closing the door after her. "Why?"

"Do you get the feeling that-"

"-it's gonna go to shit soon? Oh yeah. But Natasha tells me I'm too paranoid."

"No, no," Emma said, smiling sadly at her family, at Darcy engaging Damian in conversation, at his shark-grin, at Thor's shaking shoulders, and Bruce's bright eyes, and the way Clint's arm was around Natasha's shoulders, and Steve feeding Peter itty bitty pieces of cucumber. "I think it's gonna happen. Soon."

"Why?" Bucky asked, leaning on the counter next to her as she poured herself and him some more of the drink. 

"Because I can't possibly be allowed to be this happy. That's just nuts. No way am I gonna get to keep this for long," she said sadly. Bucky hummed. 

"And people say you're a cheery, optimistic, little bouncy ball."

"They do?"

"Wasp's words, not mine."

"'Cause you know better," Emma declared, and lifted his arm, slipping into the space there. Bucky sighed silently, gazing at Darcy with a small, small smile. 

"I know you're too loving for your own good. And too good for what you've been put through. And you're more of a rubber band than a bouncy ball."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Emma grinned, and Bucky shrugged. 

"Take it the way you wanna," he said, but the way his cheek was pressed against her hair told her all she needed to know.

\--- 


End file.
